If  you ever worked for DEC: Info for DEC alumni   

If you have paper stock certificates. What to do: Stock Certificates

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

To be sure, also check for unclaimed stock or dividends in the original state of incorporation: Massachusetts State Treasurer

DEC sale to Compaq. Due to declining growth and profits -- including losses starting in 1990 and a $2.8 billion loss in 1992 -- DEC stock was down to $45 -- from $199 four years earlier.
Management and board negotiated the sale for a 26% premium. Announced Jan 26, 1998; completed on Jun 12, 1998. For each share of DEC owned on June 11, 1998, DEC shareholders received $30.00 in cash and  0.945 share of Compaq stock. DEC stock was retired.

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. 

Stockholder information and contact instructions: HP Inc Investor Relations Site https://investor.hp.com/resources/contact-ir/default.aspx (scroll down)

Compare the date when you first acquired DEC stock with the dates in the left-hand column. If you later acquired Compaq shares while a Compaq employee, those batches of stock should be tracked separately -- see HPAA's Complete Stock Decoder Table for: Compaq  

For links and more detail on HP stock history, see HPAA's Complete Stock Decoder Table

This table is from the online system available to customers of one broker, Charles Schwab & Co. The HPAA member who contributed this table did not hold this stock before 1976.

Notes: 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

Stock splits or other corporate actions may have taken place before the first date in this table.

This table only covers stock HP/HPE events through 04/30/2019. See HP Stock Decoder for subsequent HP/HPE-related stock events.

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