Beverly HP-billies go Pronghorn

Spellchecker to blame for SECC recall

By Andrew Orlowski in New York • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 31st January 2002 05:30 GMT

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We're not sure if anything we say can make the ludicrous HP-Compaq Sircam Merger any more ridiculous, but subversive Dadaist elements inside Hewlett Packard's Cupertino headquarters are hell bent on trumping us, and making satire truly redundant.

Or so we surmise, after HP's latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing was recalled for urgent repairs last night, having been discovered to contain serious typographical slurs.

The filing referred to former HP CFO Edwin van Bronkhorst, as "Edwin von Pronghorn", changed the name of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to the "David and Lucite Packard Foundation", rechristened Eleanor Hewlett Gimon as Eleanor Hewlett Limon, and - most unfortunately - renamed Mary Hewlett Jaffe as Mary Hewlett "Gaffe"

Taking into account the sensitivities of those concerned, and their vote-toting proximity to the battle for the Compaq takeover, giving them whacky, Register-style names in a legally binding financial document isn't the most diplomatic of gestures.

HP headquarters confirmed it was recalling the document, and blamed an errant spellchecker.

However, the SECC filing is still there - as we write - for all to see..

What is Carly trying to tell us, exactly?®