Hewlett Packard says it believes its shareholders have approved the hotly contested merger with Compaq at a meeting in San Francisco today, adding, however, that official results may take weeks to verify.
In a statement, the company says that 'based on a preliminary estimate of share owner proxies by its proxy solicitor, it believes it has received sufficient votes to approve HP's merger with Compaq'.
The meeting had earlier ended after more than an hour of debate and questioning of HP chief executive Carly Fiorina, who was barraged at the packed meeting with questions about executive bonuses, valuation of shares and profits outlook.
The session was mostly polite, but Fiorina was booed at one point when she said a majority of present HP employees supported the merger - contrary to estimates released by merger opponent William Hewlett.
Although a large number of shareholders at the session in attendance appeared opposed to the merger, the outcome will be determined by the votes attributed by the owners of nearly two billion shares, the majority of which are held by institutional investors.
