HP-Compaq: And the winner is...

First of all, an apology to readers of silicon.com.

In the past this publication may have given the impression that, as of tomorrow, the entire HP Compaq circus would be over, and we could all get on with our lives without having to worry whether one of the world's biggest IT groups was about to ruin itself on the rocky shores of a large but largely unprofitable PC business.

We said tomorrow the result would be clear.

Whether ending in the resignation of the most high-powered woman in the IT business or the humiliation of the son of the venerable Bill Hewlett, the point is that you wouldn't have to read anymore stories about it and we wouldn't have to write them.

Headlines such as "HP-Compaq merger set for green light" and "HP-Compaq: Time to think what it means to you" may have given the impression that the whole thing was reaching some kind of decisive conclusion.

Unfortunately, we now realise that nothing could be further from the truth.

Unless a very decisive vote is given at the shareholder meeting today we are unlikely to know whether HP has really bought Compaq for some time yet.

And as every industry follower knows, the one thing no one is predicting is a large vote one way or the other. Too close to call more like.

Why the merger of two companies claiming to be two of the most advanced high-tech firms on the planet needs to be done manually is unclear - internet voting for corporate governance is now reasonably well-established in the US.

Perhaps Carly Fiorina and Michael Capellas don't have enough faith in internet technologies to trust online voting. A valid point, some security buffs will tell you, but I doubt it's in either of their prospectuses.

This irony aside, the real reason is because of the large number of proxy postal votes that need to be counted, none of which will be handed over to the pollsters - a Delaware firm called IVS - until the end of the meeting today.

The problem is compounded by the fact that all shareholders are allowed to vote as many times as they like, if they decide to change their mind. Only the last vote from every shareholder can be counted. This means no votes can be counted until every shareholder's proxies are filed alphabetically, and the latest poll from every voter counted.

IVS told silicon.com a similar sized vote last year took a month to calculate.

While HP or Walter Hewlett may claim victory in the meantime, the closeness of the poll could leave everyone waiting weeks for the official tally.

The only conclusion we can come to at this time is that - cue superior Brit attitude - Americans shouldn't be allowed to run elections.

While IVS assures us there is no possibility of pregnant chads in this particular poll, the temptation to remember events just over a year ago in Florida is hard to avoid.

Maybe the whole process could have been outsourced to an IT services company?