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
