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Stock issues for former Compaq employees (Updated Aug 12, 2025) Not officially endorsed or supported.
This page gives details for only one aspect of the many HP/HPE-related stocks. If you were ever an HP shareholder, you may now have shares of HPQ, HPE, Keysight, and/or Agilent – in different accounts. If ever an HPE shareholder, you may now have shares of DXC – and may not have received cash payouts for MFGP and PRSP.
Only you – not the company, plan administrators, transfer
agents, brokers, or the IRS – can reconstruct your full stock
history. Transactions were often tracked and reported
differently – or not at all.
When finished with this page, go to: HP/HPE-Related Stocks
Compaq employee stock purchase contact: Morgan
Stanley (formerly Smith Barney) 1-800-367-4777 (within
the U.S.) or 1-210-677-3712 (outside the U.S.)
See all our information for Compaq alumni -- whether or not you ever worked for HP: https://www.hpalumni.org/compaq
HP merger with Compaq. Before the deal was announced, Compaq stock was down to $12 -- from $33 in 1999. Compaq management and board negotiated a merger at 18% over market price. (90% of Compaq shares were voted in favor; 51% of HP shares were voted in favor.)
Deal closed on May 3, 2002. HWP stock symbol was changed to HPQ. Compaq shareholders received 0.6325 share of HPQ in exchange for each CPQ share. CPQ stock was retired. (Compaq had bought Tandem on Sep 2, 1997 and bought DEC on Jun 12, 1998.)
HP Inc is the overall legal successor to Hewlett-Packard and to companies acquired by Hewlett-Packard before Nov 1, 2015 – such as Compaq, DEC, EDS, Tandem, etc. -- regardless of whether a business unit ended up in HP Inc or HPE.
Instructions that CPQ shareholders received at the
time of the acquisition of Compaq by HP -- including what to
do with physical Compaq stock certificates:
https://www.hpalumni.org/StockCompaq-Letter
"Will I be provided with any information relative to the
cost basis of my Compaq common stock that is being
exchanged? No. It is important that you retain any
information that you currently have relative to the cost
basis of your Compaq common stock."
Keep your postal address current on every financial account. And run an "unclaimed property" search every year. Employer does not update your address. Financial institutions are required to turn over inactive accounts to the state. Neither cashing dividend checks, receiving direct deposits, accessing accounts online, nor receiving statements prevents this – only a personally-initiated transaction, postal response, or call. Difficult to retrieve funds – and stock is sold. Easy to check: Unclaimed Property
Compaq was incorporated in Delaware
How one broker handled stock history for: Compaq DEC Tandem
HP's official financial Q and A about several acquisitions:
HP once had a page on their financial website entitled "Q and A," which linked to FAQs giving details for stockholders of companies that HP had acquired. The FAQs are no longer on the HP financial website -- and the FAQs about acquisitions that became part of HPE on Nov 1, 2015 are not on the HPE financial website.
The most recent copy of the HP financial "Q and A" page in the independent non-profit Internet Archive was collected on Jan 9, 2017 -- and it has links to a copy of each FAQ: https://web.archive.org/web/20190109232600/http://h30261.www3.hp.com/faq.aspx
The stock in these predecessor companies is no longer traded. The shareholders -- including former employees who had stock or options -- were paid off in cash or stock of the acquiring company at the time of the acquisition.
Compaq employee stock purchase plan:
Official HP Inc public page on employee stock, including Compaq ESPP: Employee Stock and Options
Advice from HPAA members who were on the Compaq employee stock purchase plan:
- If you bought CPQ shares under the Compaq employee stock purchase plan, those shares were automatically converted to HPQ shares at the time of the merger. Unless you have sold or transferred them, the shares (and your corresponding new Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares) are being held by the last administrator of the plan, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney -- which is no longer being paid by the company for this work. Postal address: Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, 411 Borel Avenue Suite 220, San Mateo, CA 94089.
- To transfer your Compaq ESPP HPQ shares (and your corresponding new HPE shares) from Morgan Stanley to another financial institution at no charge, you can either: Go to https://www.stockplanconnect.com and download the stock transfer forms for faxing to Morgan Stanley -- or send an email to hpoptions@mssb.com -- you will immediately receive a "deleted without reading" autoreply and, later, a personal reply with instructions and forms.
- Morgan Stanley customers are getting different results from different divisions of the company -- depending on whether they were participants in the Compaq Employee Stock Purchase Plan or had transferred their HP stock to a personal account at Morgan Stanley's local-office-based retail brokerage division. Morgan Stanley issues reported by members
Selling HPQ shares online is still possible at https://www.stockplanconnect.com . However, selling HPE shares can only be done by calling 1-800-367-4777 or 1-801-617-7414.
Compaq Stock Splits
Record date and event:
December 31, 1997 2 for 1 split
July 14, 1997 5 for 2 split
May 31, 1994 3 for 1 split
December 1983 IPO
--from 2015 copy of HP website on
independent non-profit Internet Archive
Tax basis. Due to the many complex HP-related stock events, only you – not the company, plan administrators, transfer agents, brokers, or the IRS – can reconstruct your full stock history. Transactions were often tracked and reported differently – or not at all. Retain your documents and tax calculations indefinitely. Admin and Broker Issues
Your broker may have used a different formula than the one
suggested in the tax basis letter provided by the company --
resulting in a somewhat different value. Check your
brokerage account online -- or by examining a recent account
statement -- to view your holdings in each stock going
forward.
HP/HPE tax basis letter
Question? Email us:
info@hpalumni.org
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