缺乏股东支持，惠普与EMC合并案告吹

    假如惠普（Hewlett-Packard）与大型数据储存服务商EMC合并，将对首席执行官梅格•惠特曼重振惠普的计划起到怎样的作用？业界也许永远也不会知道这个问题的答案，因为据《华尔街日报》（The Wall Street Journal）报道，断断续续地磋商了近一年后，双方的谈判无果而终。

    《华尔街日报》周日晚间称，据匿名消息人士透露，两家公司已不太可能再次商讨合并事项。双方原本可能完全以换股方式进行合并，合并后总市值预计超过1280亿美元。《华尔街日报》同时指出，有报道称总部位于美国马萨诸塞州霍普金顿的EMC公司还与戴尔（Dell）进行了合并谈判。另外，思科系统公司和甲骨文公司也曾被指有意跟EMC联姻。

    相关报道表明，惠普和EMC谈判破裂，是因为担心无法获得股东支持，双方无法就合并的财务条款达成一致。

    今年夏天《财富》杂志曾报道，激进股东、对冲基金公司Elliott Management（下称Elliott）的公开呼吁，使EMC最近一直承受着拆分压力。今年7月，Elliott公布了对EMC的10亿美元投资。EMC持有上市软件开发商VMware公司80%的股份，而Elliott一直在催促EMC将该资产剥离出去，以便提升EMC的股票价值。今夏媒体首次报道Elliott投资EMC以来，EMC的股价已经上涨了近10.7%，今年初以来的涨幅更是超过了18%。

    EMC的未来还和首席执行官乔•图斯的退休计划纠缠在一起。长期以来一直担任该公司CEO的图斯表示，在掌权近14年后，他将在明年初退休。但此前图斯曾经推迟过退休时间。

    此外，惠特曼[她在《财富》杂志最新一期最具影响力商界女性排行榜上位居第6]重申，惠普的扭亏行动要到2016年才会结束。不过，最近公布的第三季度销售数字，确实出现了三年多以来的首次增长。尽管惠普打算把重心转移到云计算等增长领域，但该公司的计算机销售也出现了回升，第三季度上升了11.6%。近几年，EMC也在设法扩大自身云软件服务规模，包括在2007年收购了云备份服务供应商Mozy。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    How would a mega-merger with massive data-storage company EMC Corporation have played into Meg Whitman’s ongoing turnaround project at Hewlett-Packard? The business world may never get an answer, with merger talks between the two companies reportedly dead after nearly a year of sporadic discussions, according to The Wall Street Journal.

    Citing anonymous sources, WSJ said on Sunday evening as saying it was unlikely the deal talks would rekindle in what could have been an all-stock merger bringing together two companies with a combined market value of more than $128 billion. EMC has also reportedly held deal talks with Dell, while Cisco Systems and Oracle Corporation have also been cited as potential suitors for the Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based company, WSJ says.

    Reports suggest that deal talks between HP and EMC fell apart due to concerns over shareholder support as well as the companies’ inability to reach an agreement on financial terms of a potential deal.

    As Fortunenoted over the summer, EMC has recently been under pressure to break itself apart following a public appeal from an activist shareholder – hedge fund manager Elliott Management, which revealed a $1 billion investment in EMC in July. Elliott had been pushing for a spin-off of EMC’s 80% stake in publicly-traded software VMware as a way to boost EMC’s share value. EMC’s stock has jumped nearly 10.7% since Elliott’s stake was first reported this summer and the company’s shares have gained more than 18% so far this year.

    EMC’s future is also in flux with the expected retirement of longtime CEO Joe Tucci, who has said he will call it quits early next year after about 14 years at the helm, though he has previously delayed his retirement.

    Meanwhile, HP’s Whitman (No. 6 on Fortune’s most recent Most Powerful Women list) has maintained that she would not complete her company’s ongoing turnaround until sometime in 2016, but the company did recently put out third-quarter sales numbers that showed growth for the first time in more than three years. HP’s computer sales have also rebounded, jumping 11.6% in the third quarter, even as the company looks to shift focus to growth areas such as “cloud” computing. EMC has also tried expanding its cloud software services in recent years, including through the 2007 acquisition of cloud-based online backup service Mozy.