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Stock issues for former Compaq employees   (Updated Mar 28, 2023)


Time to untangle your stock! Depending on when and how you acquired HP or HPE stock, you may now have stock in up to five (formerly seven) completely separate HP-related companies -- HP, HPE, Agilent, Keysight, DXC, Perspecta, Micro Focus -- and may have missed cash payouts. Often in multiple accounts -- related to various employee stock purchase, option and incentive plans over the years -- or in personal brokerage accounts. How many shares of which companies should I have? How much cash should I have received? hpalumni.org/stock

If you received a letter from Social Security entitled "Potential Private Retirement Benefit." How to decode: https://www.hpalumni.org/PotentialBenefitLetter.

If you have paper stock certificates. What to do: https://www.hpalumni.org/StockCertificate


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Stock Menu. Keep up with HP/HPE-related stock issues: Join at no charge. Question or comment? Email: info@hpalumni.org

See all our information for Compaq alumni -- whether or not you ever worked for HP: https://www.hpalumni.org/compaq

HP's purchase of Compaq was closed on May 3, 2002. Compaq shareholders received 0.6325 share of HPQ in exchange for each CPQ share -- 18% over market price. CPQ stock was retired. HWP stock symbol changed to HPQ.

HP Inc. is the legal successor to the companies acquired by Hewlett-Packard before the company was split into HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise on Nov 1, 2015. Responsibility for commitments to former employees of Compaq, DEC, EDS, etc. remain with HP Inc. -- regardless of whether their last business unit ended up in HP or HPE. Includes employment verification and any retiree health, pension, etc. plans. (About the HP Breakup)

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."

To check for lost stock: Compaq was incorporated in Delaware

HPAA's detailed Stock Decoder tables for: Compaq   DEC    Tandem


Compaq employee stock purchase plan:

Official HPInc 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 Internet Archive

Tax basis. Members report that brokerages, plan administrators, and transfer agents vary (sometimes dramatically) in how (or if) they make gain/loss and cost basis calculations and in what (if anything) they report to the IRS. Members have reported variations between Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Schwab, TDAmeritrade, and Vanguard

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


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