In light of the revelations of Wells Fargo and its pressure on employees to sign up customers to new accounts, credit cards, insurance, et cetera; you are the Senior Vice President and relationship officer in the banking division of Deutsche Bank responsible for the HP account and learn of the HP Board’s request to Deutsche Asset Management Division of the bank. Write a one [1] paragraph of what you would do, knowing that the lending relationship with Deutsche is at risk if the merger does not go through and post to Course Discussion Board

Conflict or Just Good Client Relations?

In 2003, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Compaq were pursuing one of the largest high-tech mergers in history. Walter Hewlett, son of the company’s founder and an HP director, commenced a proxy contest to oppose the merger. On the day the stockholders were to vote, Deutsche Asset Management, a division of Deutsche Bank, suddenly changed most of its votes from opposing the merger to approving it. The investment giant’s sudden turnaround accounted for 17 million HP shares, nearly 1% of the company’s stock. What Walter Hewlett did not know at the time was that HP’s directors, who were in favor of the merger, had secretly hired Deutsche Bank and agreed to pay it $1 million to advise HP concerning the merger. Deutsche Bank was to receive another $1 million on the successful completion of the merger. The merger was approved by a margin of roughly 2% of the company’s stock.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

HP had secretly hired Deutsche Bank to favour the merger ... View the full answer