Hometown boy holds key to H-P deal

THE final shareholder vote count for Hewlett-Packard's merger with Compaq will be known next week, but the marriage's fate is now in the hands of a Delaware Chancery Court judge known for his rural roots and Ivy League background.

Judge William Chandler III, a country boy with a keen intellect, paved the way for dissident shareholder Walter Hewlett's lawsuit challenging the Compaq acquisition to proceed to trial.

Hewlett, the son of an H-P co-founder, charges that chief executive Carly Fiorina and top management pressured Deutsche Asset Management, a unit of Germany's Deutsche Bank, into voting a 17m-share block in favour of the deal. The suit alleges H-P management threatened to pull business from the banking parent if the unit did not vote in support of the merger.

H-P is expected narrowly to win the shareholder count, making the Deutsche Bank switch a potentially deciding factor.

Judge Chandler, who lives in the tiny Delaware town of Dagsboro where he was born, received his law degree from Yale University and is no stranger to controversial corporate cases. His previous decisions in cases involving Hilton Hotels and telecoms titan WorldCom were considered evenhanded and thoughtful.

Chandler, 51, said there was enough initial evidence to warrant a trial to ascertain whether Deutsche Bank's vote in favour 'was the result of enticement or coercion' by H-P management.