Welch Says Rivals to Benefit From HP Deal
Former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch told Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman Carly Fiorina that he sees the potential for “chaos” surrounding HP’s plan to acquire Compaq Computer Corp. that competitors would exploit.
Welch said in a television interview with Fiorina that support for the deal among HP’s competitors helped explain why European regulators had given the go-ahead to HP’s proposed deal while rejecting GE’s bid under Welch to buy Honeywell.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Feb. 9, 2002 FOR THE RECORD
Los Angeles Times Saturday February 9, 2002 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 A2 Desk 2 inches; 50 words Type of Material: Correction
Jack Welch comments--A story in Friday’s Business section misconstrued a comment by former General Electric Co. Chairman Jack Welch that appeared critical of Hewlett-Packard Co.’s plan to acquire Compaq Computer Corp. Welch was actually paraphrasing the comments of Walter Hewlett, the main opponent of the deal, and not expressing his own opinion.
“Your competitors want this deal to go through. It will create chaos. They will clean both your clocks while you’re doing all this,” Welch said.
