Big ads in newspaper about HP and Compaq

bdj · February 13th, 2002, 08:53 PM

For a couple of days HP has taken out a full two page ad for there merger with Compaq. Personally, I think the two should not merge. HP can stand on its own with out Compaq. Further, I feel that there have been too many takeovers in recent months. Enough is enough.

Any thoughts on this merger??

bdj

bdj · February 14th, 2002, 02:02 PM

Here we go again. HP has taken out another full two page ad trying to convince stockholders that it would be in their best interest to aquire Compaq. I think that if someone is drowning, you should do whatever is necessary to help. But in this case, if Compaq is struggling as much as I understand them to be, why take yourself down with them??

bdj

February 14th, 2002, 02:16 PM

The family that owns a large chunk of HP stock does not want the merger. Probably because it will dilute their holding.

But it makes sense to merge similar businesses to leverage purchasing/manufacturing and sales of common components/parts.

I feel both companies would benefit from the merger in terms of lower operating costs.

Bob The Great · February 14th, 2002, 02:18 PM

Is it better to have 1 big bad ugly money grubbing, customer hating company making americas #1 worst PC, or 2 companies fighting for that place?!?

bdj · February 14th, 2002, 02:44 PM

shahani,

That may very well be true, but what happens to all the people that will be released because of the merger, and there will be people released. They might get some early retirement package or something, but in this economy, jobs are hard to find. Yes, I know if Compaq were to fail they would all be out of a job, semi-rant/ except the top exec. who will still get their mega bonus package/ end-rant. If this merger were to go through, would the PC world be better off because of it, or in spite of it?

bdj

bdj · February 21st, 2002, 03:01 PM

Here we go yet again. HP has taken out 2 full page ads two days this week in the L.A. Times business section touting how everything will be better for both them and Compaq if the stockholders vote for the merger. I get the feeling that it is more like a plea begging for support for the merger. HP has been in business for this long without having to rely on Compaq, I can't see why it's so urgent to them now.

bdj

Mntsnow · February 22nd, 2002, 01:14 AM

Well ...Do you own stock in either company? If you did then you would have received more indepth info on what the merger might ultimately offer to the company. I personally dont have stock in either and thus have not followed it that closely. I say if one side or the other wants to take out ads to support their side...great. It's just more money for the newspapers so they are now also supporting other industries

bdj · March 13th, 2002, 02:49 PM

H.P. must be really despirate to have their stockholders to vote for this merger. They have had 7 days of single full page ads to vote for the merger. IMO, I find it highly suspect if a company has to spend that much time, money, and effort to get its stockholders to vote a specific way.

bdj

Tomteriffic · March 13th, 2002, 03:01 PM

As I understand it, a large part of the family is vehemently against the merger and the FTC and SEC aren't looking too kindly on it either. Personally, I'm not sure it's such a swift idea from the standpoint of competition in the marketplace. I'm not nuts about either brand these days, despite HP's stellar record on their servers and workstations in past years.

They covet the Compaq server business, but, in the end, the home and SOHO user is going to be faced with fewer choices, more chance of one or two huge players getting to cahoots with M$ or whoever, again cutting down the consumer range of choice, and once again, we're faced with a quasi-monopoly and force fed products we're not too crazy about but buy because they're the least evil of the available choices.

storm2k · March 16th, 2002, 02:27 AM

acutally, if the shareholders give this the green light, i think the sec will look favoribly on it in the end... one too many republicans will convince the sec that this is a good thing...

let's face it, compaq can't stand on its own anymore. they're losing major battle ground to dell in the desktop world and just about everyone in the server world. they're ripe to be picked, and hp's gonna pick and shore itself up.

the ugly face of business rears itself again...

look out, because i'm sure gateway's next.