Welch Says Rivals to Benefit From HP Deal
LA Times | at | by Rod
Former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch told Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman Carly Fiorina that he sees the potential for "chaos" surrounding HP's plan to acquire Compaq Computer Corp. that competitors would exploit. Welch said in a television interview with Fiorina that support for the deal among HP's competitors helped explain why European regulators had given the go-ahead to HP's proposed deal while rejecting GE's bid under Welch to buy Honeywell. "Your competitors want this deal to go through. It will create chaos. They will clean both your clocks while you're doing all this," Welch said.