IP: HP board veteran Hackborn is key in fate of Compaq deal

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

[ I had the opportunity and pleasure of working with Dick in the early days 
of workstations -- the Amigo effort as a consultant to HP Labs. . He is one 
great HPer in the tradition of what had made HP strong. His activity in the 
printer area helped build HP's dominance of the field in the early days. -- 
Dave]

http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/opinion/herhold/sh110901.htm

HP board veteran Hackborn is key in fate of Compaq deal

Anyone trying to forecast whether the HP-Compaq deal will succeed -- and 
whether Carly Fiorina will keep her job -- quickly finds that the threads 
lead back to one man: Richard A. Hackborn.
With co-founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard gone, Hackborn is the elder 
statesman on the Hewlett-Packard board, the link to a magical past and the 
man who fought hard for Fiorina's appointment as chief executive more than 
two years ago.

Now that faith is being tested like never before. Hackborn is being pulled 
two ways -- between his loyalty to Fiorina and his allegiance to an 
organization that shows signs of rejecting her.
The public opposition to the deal this week by the two sons of the founders 
-- Walter Hewlett and David W. Packard -- focused the klieg lights on his 
uncomfortable position.

Hackborn himself isn't talking publicly and has been unreachable at his 
Idaho home. But friends describe him as full of angst about the way the 
proposed merger is being received.
It wasn't supposed to happen this way.

Hackborn, a longtime HP executive


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