New York Fund Joins HP-Compaq Opposition

March 15, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The parade of institutional investors announcing their voting positions on Hewlett-Packard's (H-P) controversial proposed acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. continued Friday with the New York state public pension fund joining the opposition.

New York Comptroller H. Carl McCall said the New York State Common Retirement Fund would vote its 6 million H-P shares against the deal, telling a television interviewer that: “This would create a bigger company, but not necessarily a better and more profitable company,” according to a Reuters report.

McCall’s announcement comes a day after a flood of similar disclosures from other shareholders.

The Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System said they would oppose the deal. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) announced its opposition last week.

In the supporters camp, Banc One Investment Advisors said it would vote its 0.26% H-P stake for the deal, adding its support to Putnam Investments, Alliance Capital and Barclays Global Investors. Proxy monitor firm ISS, which serves many institutional plans, has also advised its clients to vote for the merger.

Analysts are calling next week’s scheduled votes on the deal a toss up.

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