HP no longer wants Walter Hewlett

HP no longer wants Walter Hewlett to sit on its board of directors. No

kidding! For once I can sympathize with HP. The amount of bad blood that has

spilled between the son of co-founder William Hewlett and Carly Fiorina and the

rest of the board is far too great to be mended by a few "we are

family" kind of feel-good meetings as HP tried last week.

For Hewlett to be surprised and disappointed of being left of the slate of

shareholders for the combined HP-Compaq company - after he filed a lawsuit

against the company -- denotes a high level of naivety. Ironically, the bloody

battle for the shareholder votes does seem to have lifted Fiorina's stature on

Wall Street.

The fight with Hewlett, in which Fiorina showed a willingness to lie, steal

and cheat to get her way, is boosting her image as a tough-minded chief

executive. And on Wall Street being tough and Microsoft-like ruthless is a good

thing. Fiornia's new image contrasts with the one of a handsome, intelligent,

smart-talking, but largely superficial CEO who did not really seem to be in

charge of her troops.

The new Fiorina image is that of a tough-minded,

"the-end-justifies-the-means" CEO who doesn't give a damn about what

others think of her, including HP employees who will soon feel her wrath by way

of massive layoffs. If the deal with Compaq is approved and survives legal

challenges, Fiorina will emerge as the big winner. She may have destroyed the HP

Way corporate culture, but the new company will have a tough CEO ready to take

on IBM.

Common sense, however, tells me that if Carly wins the merger battle, every

last negative prediction about the merger will become a reality because no

matter what, combining two huge high-tech companies has never been done

successfully. The combined sales will fall, losses will be announced,

marketshare will be lost, many key employees will leave, and distracting and

ferocious internal turf battles will rage between HP and Compaq product groups

and managers, while HP shares will be depressed for years to come.