Computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. on Tuesday said it has set a shareholder vote for March 19 on its controversial plan to buy Compaq Computer Corp., in what would be the computer industry's largest merger.
Compaq will hold its meeting a day later, the companies said in regulatory filings.
Dissident Hewlett-Packard board member Walter Hewlett, a son of co-founder Bill Hewlett, urged shareholders to join members of the founding families, which hold 18 percent of Hewlett-Packard stock, in opposing the $23 billion deal.
Hewlett said in a statement that he had begun mailing his own proxy materials to shareholders.
The vote dates fit the timetable that Hewlett-Packard and Compaq laid out when they announced the deal in September. They said they expected it to close in the first half of 2002.
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