Packards and Hewletts united against Compaq deal

David W. Packard, the son of HP founder Dave Packard, has added his support to the decision by the Hewlett family not to endorse the company's merger with arch-rival Compaq.

Packard has been critical of the direction of the company for some time and resigned from the HP board in 1999.

Now he has added his voice to a growing chorus of disapproval of the deal, which yesterday saw the Hewlett family withdrawing their support for the multi-billion dollar takeover.

Packard was quoted in tech newswire Siliconvalley.com saying: "I agree with Walter [Hewlett]'s statement that gave a lot of business reasons why this merger is a bad deal and I share all of those reasons."

However, Packard stressed his was a personal opinion and he did not speak for the Packard family or the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, which is the single largest shareholder in HP, owning 10 per cent of the stock.

Investors are awaiting the decision of the Packard Foundation, which has hired financial advisers to help it make a decision, and is rumoured to be considering voting against.

A vote against by the Packard foundation would be a serious blow to management hopes of pushing the merger through despite misgivings in many quarters about the strategy.