Adviser to make recommendation on HP, Compaq merger

Institutional Shareholder Services, the biggest proxy adviser, will make a recommendation early next month on the proposed $US22.5 billion ($52.3 billion) merger of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq. Investors will vote later in March. So far shareholders that include the founding families led by Walter Hewlett and representing 18 per cent of Hewlett-Packard's shares are opposed to chief executive officer Carly Fiorina's plan to buy Compaq. Shareholders owning about 2.7 per cent support the purchase. About 75 per cent of Hewlett-Packard's investors have yet to decide.