The FTC had investigated the merger's possible effect on competition in markets for PCs, servers and microprocessors, among other products. Based on that investigation, it said that it “did not find reason to believe that the proposed transaction would impair competition in any relevant market.”
Throughout the course of their respective investigations, the FTC and the European Union staff consulted with each other. The FTC yesterday confirmed that it had voted unanimously to close the investigation without taking any enforcement action.
HP will put the proposed merger to a vote by shareholders on 19th March. Walter Hewlett, son of the co-founder of HP and a significant shareholder, is continuing his public campaign against the merger.
A spokesperson for Hewlett is today quoted by the Wall Street Journal, saying of the FTC ruling: “We believe HP stockholders should be concerned when competitors like Sun, Dell and IBM don’t object to a transaction that is supposed to add value to HP.” He added that if there was “even a whiff of competitive advantage” in the merger, the regulators would have expressed concern.
Walter Hewlett’s campaign site is at www.votenohpcompaq.com.