ISS To Issue HP Merger Assessment On Tuesday

Institutional Shareholder Services Hewlett-Packard Compaq Computer

Pat McGurn, vice president at ISS, said once the report is issued, "the focus will shift to our clients; they are the ones who will have to vote on it."

Rockville, Md.-based ISS advises institutional clients on proxy votes and has emerged as a key player in the bitter HP proxy fight. While some clients allow ISS to vote their shares based on the consulting firm's recommendation, most institutional investors merely use ISS in an advisory role and may or may not follow the company's assessment.

But in a race that is too close to call, the ISS report is seen as a key indicator in the HP merger vote scheduled for March 19.

After a week of increasingly bitter exchanges between dissident HP shareholder and board member Walter Hewlett and HP management, HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina got in the last barb late Friday.

In a letter to shareholders, she said, "As the vote at the March 19 special meeting approaches, Walter Hewlett has become more extreme in his claims and predictions. His financial adviser, the one which stands to make an extra $12 million if you reject the merger, has prepared a report based on arbitrary and unrealistic assumptions, arguing that HP's share price will increase if HP would only adhere to Walter Hewlett's guidelines and frameworks," she wrote. "This report is based on a series of arbitrary and incorrect assumptions."

Walter Hewlett and his advisers did not respond to request for interviews.