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HP workers like merger
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January 25, 2002: 7:32 p.m. ET
HP says survey shows 65 percent of employees favor merger with Compaq.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A Hewlett-Packard Co. internal survey found 65 percent of its employees are in favor of buying Compaq Computer Corp., the company said in a regulatory filing Friday.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, an internal "pulse" taken by HP Human Resources Vice President Susan Bowick showed 65 percent favored the $24 billion merger.
Bowick also acknowledged that employees continue to have questions regarding the selection process for jobs, organizational design and HP values, the filing said.
The survey ended Jan. 9 and was presented at meeting with CEO Carly Fiorina and 220 senior leaders.
The company has touted higher numbers previously, although executives said support was higher than the previous broad survey in mid-November, when 55 percent backed the deal.
Less than 3 percent of HP stock is held by employees, but their support is seen as crucial to a successful integration of the two companies and internal support would suggest the merger is not simply an idea pushed by the Hewlett-Packard board.
At the same meeting, Fiorina said "if we believe in our strategy, if we believe we must lead, not follow, that we must live up to our potential," then the merger is the best alternative, according to the document.
Fiorina and senior executives at HP (HWP: Research, Estimates) and Compaq (CPQ: Research, Estimates) have devoted substantial time and energy to convincing employees that the merger would be good for the company, even though it would entail some 15,000 job cuts.
But critics, including David Packard, son of a founder, say the rank and file have opposed the merger.
I received 200 letters against the merger before I got a single letter in favor," Packard wrote in a Wednesday full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal.
Hewlett-Packard says Fiorina has been convincing employees about the deal's wisdom as she has visited plants.
"What we have seen is that every event we have done is just pushing the needle up and up," said Employee Communications Director Yvonne Hunt.
Walter Hewlett, the dissident board member leading the fight against the merger, made his position public Nov. 6. Hewlett has launched a proxy fight against the deal, and on Friday he even launched a Web site, www.votenohpcompaq.com.
The mid-November HP poll reflected confusion among the troops, Hunt said.
Packard, who has been especially critical of the job cuts, argued the Hewlett-Packard board should commission an independent survey that would show how far employees trusted and were loyal to management. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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