Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina said in a voicemail
message left for one member of the company's executive team that HP
might have to take "extraordinary" measures to ensure key investors
vote in favour of the company's acquisition of Compaq, according to
published reports.
Fiorina left a voicemail message for Bob Wayman, executive
vice-president and chief financial officer at HP, two days before
HP's shareholder vote on the deal. In the voicemail, she suggested
that the company "may have to do something extraordinary" to make
Deutsche Bank and Northern Trust. vote in favour of the
acquisition, according to a report in the
San Jose Mercury
News, which received a copy of the voicemail message.
In a statement issued yesterday (10 April), Wayman said the
language used in the voicemail message reflected standard operating
procedure for the hotly contested battle. But one of the lead
objectors to the merger, Walter Hewlett, HP board member and son of
one of HP's founders, plans to submit the voicemail message as
evidence in a lawsuit he filed last month alleging that HP took
inappropriate steps - such as coercion and withholding of
information - to gain shareholder votes, according to his
spokesman.
"In the last few days before the special meeting, we were
constantly prioritising our efforts based on feedback from
investors and whether we had yet made our case effectively to
them," Wayman said. "We did in fact make extraordinary efforts to
present the merits of the merger to investors, including dozens of
presentations in the final days."
Hewlett's camp was unaware of the voicemail until yesterday and
countered that it may actually support its case against HP.
"We believe that the voicemail is relevant to our case and assume
it will be turned over as part of the discovery," said Todd Glass,
a spokesman for Walter Hewlett.
Hewlett filed suit on 28 March against HP, claiming the company
took improper actions to coerce Deutsche Asset Management, a
division of Deutsche Bank, to reverse its vote against the deal.
Hewlett also alleged that company executives held back information
on the expenses associated with acquiring Compaq from investors.
Despite HP's call to dismiss the suit, a Delaware judge this week
allowed the hearing to continue.
Fiorina's voicemail called on Wayman to telephone a Deutsche Bank
executive. "And if you don't get the right answer from him, then
you and I need to demand a conference call, an audience, etc to
make sure that we get them in the right place," she said in the
voicemail message, adding that she should would personally call
Northern Trust.