The whole high technology industry will be hoping fervently that Hewlett-Packard Co will defend one of the most contemptibly meretricious securities class action lawsuits even that breed of parasitic investors that delight in bringing against blameless companies: the company has received a suit seeking unspecified damages for shareholders that bought shares in the company between December 4 1991 and August 6 1992, when the company said that third quarter results would be below analysts’ expectations and president John Young says we have reviewed the complaints and find them to be utterly without merit… It is an unfortunate fact of life for HP and other public technology companies that significant movements in stock price inevitably spawn private securities lawsuits, he said, but we resent the accusations and deny categorically that any securities laws were violated by HP, and we will aggressively seek the dismissal of all claims asserted against the company and its officers; until the plaintiffs in such cases risk a very bloody nose if their suit fails, company managements will continue to be diverted from running the business to answer the suit, and the only viable remedy looks to be a ganging together of all shareholders not in the class to counter-sue the plaintiffs for wasting the company’s resources.
