Hewlett bows to Compaq merger

HEWLETT-PACKARD is preparing to relaunch itself as the world's biggest personal computer maker next week after former director and 18% shareholder Walter Hewlett finally withdrew his opposition to a $20bn (£14bn) merger with Compaq Computer.

Hewlett, son of the company's late co-founder Bill Hewlett, was left with no option but to go along with the merger after a Delaware judge threw out his claims that HP had misled shareholders and forced co-shareholder Deutsche Asset Management to switch sides by threatening not to do business with it in future.

Hewlett will not appeal against the judge's ruling, and says he will now work to make the merger succeed. But he also says he will continue to monitor the merged group's performance 'in the best interests of all stockholders'.

He was forced off the board when he opposed chief executive Carly Fiorina, saying she and other executives were saddling shareholders with the world's biggest low-margin personal computers business to camouflage their own underperformance in the high-end computing and printers market.