When the flap over the Interex Board's announcement of support for the
merger was hot and Bob Combs (Board Chairman) supplied a very tepid
justification to HP3000-L, I wrote him directly asking for more of an
explanation. What follows is the reply I received today and my response.
BTW, I can guarantee we will not be re-upping our site membership.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Burke
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 12:55 PM
To: 'Bob Combs'
Subject: RE: HP stock inquiry


Bob,

Fine. Not an unreasonable approach though hardly necessary since any number
of sources can provide the same information - I own HP stock and I get much
more timely information from the various financial news services.

But that is besides the point. You still have not addressed why the Board
made such a big deal about supporting the merger and implying that the
membership was behind the support. Furthermore, the Board has never
addressed it's failure to in any way express displeasure at HP's EOL of the
HP 3000. Would it have changed HP's corporate mind? No, but at least the
members of the organization would know that it was expressing the
membership's opinion instead of appearing to be an HP management toady.

John Burke
Systems and Operations Manager
Pacific Coast Building Products
4290 Roseville Road, Suite B
North Highlands, CA 95660
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel: 916-971-2394
Fax: 916-488-9359

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Combs [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 12:38 PM
To: 'Bob Combs'
Subject: HP stock inquiry



This message is in response to inquiries about how much Hewlett-Packard
stock Interex owns since the Board announced its support in favor of the
HP-Compaq merger.  I'd like to assure you that Interex only owns a token
amount of stock and is not significantly invested in Hewlett-Packard.

Several years ago the organization purchased a small amount of HP stock to
insure that notices sent from HP to stockholders would get to Interex in a
timely manner. It has been a valuable link in assuring Interex announces

newsworthy items to its membership base. The stock does not affect the
independence the organization has from HP, nor does it obligate HP to any
special treatment other than that which HP accords to its computer
customers.

Regards,
Bob Combs
Chairman of the Board
Interex

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