Survey: HP employees oppose merger
Poll financed by David Packard, who opposed Compaq merger, conflicts with HP's own findings.
February 20, 2002: 5:19 p.m. ET
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A survey commissioned by David Packard, who opposes Hewlett-Packard Co.'s takeover of Compaq Computer, revealed Wednesday that a majority of employees oppose the takeover and conflicts with a recent poll by HP.
Nearly two-thirds, or 63 percent, of HP employees in the Corvallis, Ore., area oppose the merger, while 31 percent support it and 6 percent had no opinion, the data said.
The strongest resistance comes from workers over the age of 40, of which 45 percent oppose the merger. Only 25 percent of those under 40 oppose the merger, the data said.
David Woodley Packard, son of the HP co-founder David Packard, is opposing the HP-Compaq merger and financed the survey. Packard, chairman of the Packard Humanities Institute, owns 25 million HP shares, or 1 percent of the company and will likely vote against the HP-Compaq transaction when it is put to shareholders.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HWP: up $0.06 to $19.82, Research, Estimates) will vote March 19 on the $21 billion merger while Compaq (CPQ: up $0.09 to $10.65, Research, Estimates) shareholders will vote the next day.
The Corvallis site, dominated by HP's printing division, was chosen because of the high proportion of employees.
The Packard survey conflicts with a recent one from HP itself that found 76 percent workers in Corvallis and in Vancouver, Wash. support the merger.
Conducted by independent pollster Field Research Corp., the Packard survey cited employee concern that Compaq will not add value or questions over the company's profitability as the main reason persons were against the transaction.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard prides itself on prides itself on community-style management and employee opposition to the deal would make consummation of the merger harder. 
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