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Majority wins!

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CIOL Bureau
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Walter Hewlett had a clear moral obligation to use some of the hundreds of

millions of dollars he inherited from his father to prevent what he and most of

the Packard family see as the destruction of their parent's lifetime

achievement: a unique corporate culture that valued people over everything else,

even at the expense of maximum profit margins.

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HP CEO Carly Fiorina can argue all day that HP is a different company today

than the one David Packard and Bill Hewlett built and guided throughout the

1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s and most of the 90s. And she can argue that

today's business conditions are radically different, requiring radically

different approaches and solutions.

But she will never convince Walter Hewlett who felt HP is strong enough to

pull itself up by its bootstraps and remain a strong technology company with

high profit margins. A company that doesn't need to be merged with some huge

alien force in a desperate effort to catch up to IBM in gross annual sales.

But in the end, Hewlett lost the vote by a very slim margin, just as Al Gore

lost on a close vote to George Bush. Are we better off economically today under

Bush? Not in Silicon Valley we're not! But you have to respect the decision of

the majority, like it or not. And the HP shareholders who voted for the merger

and who are looking at years of problems that will keep the firm's stock price

depressed will have to live with their decision.

The only ones better off due to the HP-Compaq merger are the media who will

be feasting off years of HP-Compaq trials and tribulations as the integration of

the two mammoth companies struggles along. Can the merger succeed? No it can't!

It has never been done before and Fiorina is not the person to pull off a

miracle. And having made herself enemy #1 with a large portion of her own

workforce will definitely not help her overcome the otherwise insurmountable

challenges ahead.

But it will be interesting seeing her try.

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