Law Firm Seeks to Halt HP-Compaq Merger Vote

A Los Angeles law firm on Sunday said it has asked a judge to stop a vote on the proposed $21 billion merger between Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer, but HP denied on Monday that such a request was ever filed with the court.

The law firm Weiss & Yourman, seeking to represent HP investors as of Jan. 28, claimed certain unspecified information was omitted from solicitations to shareholders in violation of federal securities laws.

About 900,000 shareholders have been sent materials to vote on the deal by March 19.

Weiss & Yourman said in a statement the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and seeks to prevent a vote until HP recalculates the worth of the merger with Compaq and sends new information to shareholders.

Hewlett-Packard, which says it has asked the judge to throw out the lawsuit, disputed the law firm's claim that it had sought to stop the shareholder vote.

"The plaintiffs have not moved for a preliminary injunction to block the vote," an HP spokesperson says.

Instead, HP says the law firm asked the judge last week to speed up the case so it could obtain information from the computer company, but that the court denied the request.

"This suit appears to be a tactic to disrupt or to profit from a contested proxy contest," the spokesperson says.

Attorneys for Weiss & Yourman did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Copies of the court filings were not immediately available.

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