| HP
- Compaq Merger
Dear
customer: As
we begin a new year, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your
business. In one of the most difficult business cycles in decades, we
value your commitment to hp and we deeply appreciate the opportunity to help
you reach your business goals. You’ve
no doubt heard much about HP’s proposed merger with Compaq Computer
Corporation. You may have also heard about the Hewlett and Packard
Foundations’ recent decisions to vote their respective shares in
opposition to our planned merger with Compaq.
While we are disappointed by their decision, we recognize that as
charitable institutions, their investment priorities must necessarily be
focused on achieving conservative, short-term returns. While we respect and
understand their requirements, a high-tech company competing in rapidly
changing markets has different requirements. It is this company’s
job to represent the interests of all of our stakeholders – customers,
partners, employees and shareowners, alike – who count on management and
the Board of Directors to stay focused on leadership, value creation and
growth. At
this time, it’s worth stepping back and remembering why we decided to
pursue this merger in the first place –
our customers. We recognize
that customer requirements are changing.
Increasingly, customers are looking for technology investments to
produce a better, faster return on investment.
They’re looking to benefit from the economics and flexibility that
standards-based platforms and architectures provide. They’re interested in working with fewer, more capable
partners who can deliver integrated, end-to-end solutions. And they’re looking to work with one of the industry’s
primary innovators, a technology partner who will help lead and navigate the
technology transitions ahead. Our
merger with Compaq will help us achieve all of these objectives and more. By
combining forces, we will be in a position to offer the industry’s leading
server line-up spanning high-end, fault-tolerant computing systems, to UNIX
servers and industry-standard servers.
We will integrate both HP and Compaq's storage portfolios to create
market-leading solutions for our customers.
We double our sales resources. We
double the number of consulting, outsourcing and support resources we can
focus on your business. We
increase the R&D resources focused on solving your most urgent
technology challenges. We
become a much stronger competitor and a more compelling partner. Naturally,
there are concerns associated with the challenge of executing and serving
customers during a complex integration process. It’s for this reason that our single most important
priority throughout the integration process is maintaining our focus on
customers. Essential decisions
around account team coverage, future product roadmaps, and technology
tradeoffs are all being vetted with our customers in mind.
We constantly ask ourselves how we can minimize disruption to
customers, even as we look to greatly enhance our capabilities. We
believe that our responsibility to customers is to define the future, rather
than be defined by it. As Dave
Packard often said, “To remain static is to fall behind.” On your
behalf, we are determined to stay ahead. Best
regards, Carly
Fiorina |
 |
