WHAT'S THE TRUTH ABOUT WALTER HEWLETT?

摘要

Last Labor Day weekend, Walter B. Hewlett almost resigned from the board of Hewlett-Packard Co. The eldest son of HP co-founder William R. Hewlett was at a vacation home in the Sierra Nevada mountains, wrestling with how to cast his vote the following Monday on HP'S proposed purchase of Compaq Computer Corp. He hated the deal. But he had been told it would be completed with or without his vote, and he worried that a protest vote would allow Compaq to demand a higher price from HP. "I agonized all weekend," Hewlett says. "I could vote yes, vote no, or I could resign―and resigning meant I wouldn't have to vote against my convictions. But I've been involved with this company in some way for 50 years, and I felt it was important for me to stay involved. The employees couldn't resign from their jobs so I wasn't going to abandon my duties."