The voice mail message was left for Robert Wayman just two days before the vote by the company’s shareholders on whether or not to approve the acquisition of Compaq.
In the message, Fiorina explained that she was worried that two major investors, Deutsche Computer Corp. and Northern Trust Global Investments, would vote against the deal. She said, “We may have to do something extraordinary for those two to bring them over the line here.”
Last Wednesday’s leak could be significant. HP is currently being sued by Walter Hewlett over allegations that the company coerced another investor, Deutsche Bank, into accepting the deal.
The company says that HP intends to “prosecute these matters to the fullest extent of HP policy and applicable law.” Currently, the source of the leak, and the manner in which the message was accessed, are unknown.
A report by Associated Press identifies a number of means by which voice mail messages can be accessed by parties other than the intended recipients, including an employee knowing another’s password or the voice mail data being stored digitally and the system being hacked