Preparations for a merger between Hewlett-Packard and Compaq will proceed despite recent dips in their stock prices, their presidents said in an interview with the Financial Timespublished today.
"Only share owners can vote down this deal. The deal isn't going to come apart between now and then [the shareholders' vote]," said Ms Carly Fiorina, president and chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, who would become chief executive of the new HP if the deal is approved.
Ms Fiorina said the boards of both companies continued to support the merger, despite the drubbing that both stocks have taken following the merger announcement.
"We knew the market would be sceptical. I told both boards the market would hate this deal initially. We did not enter it unprepared. But to be honest it was a bit more negative initially than we thought," Ms Fiorina told the FT.
"The intensity of the reaction has surprised us," agreed Mr Michael Capellas, the chief executive of Compaq who will become president of the new HP when the deal is completed.
"But nobody on either board or management would walk away if it got tough," He said.
Ms Fiorina announced last Tuesday the firm would acquire Texas-based Compaq for $25 billion (euro 27.8 billion), creating a juggernaut to compete with IBM and Sun Microsystems in the corporate computing and server markets.
The new company also stands to become the world's largest maker of personal computers, ahead of Dell, and second only to IBM as a world computer services provider.
AFP