Computer giants

Hewlett family files lawsuit against Compaq merger vote

Hewlett-Packard’s management improperly enticed a large investor to switch sides and support H-P’s $19 billion merger with Compaq Computer Corp., a lawsuit filed Thursday by a Hewlett family member alleges.

The move “tainted more than enough votes to swing the election in favor of the merger,” said the lawsuit, filed by Walter Hewlett, the son of one of the company’s late founders. He led the bitterly fought five-month campaign against the combination, which pitted company heirs against current H-P management.

The lawsuit said a division of Deutsche Bank originally decided to vote the more than 25 million shares that it controlled against the merger but changed its vote after being led to believe it would lose its business relationship with H-P.

Economy

Report shows U.S. recession among mildest on record

The economy, knocked down by recession and terror attacks, snapped back at a stronger pace than previously believed in the final three months of 2001.

Gross domestic product  the broadest measure of the economy’s health  grew at an annual rate of 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, its best performance in a year, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

The latest GDP report reinforces the view that the recession, which began last March, has ended and probably will turn out to be the country’s mildest downturn ever, economists said.

Layoffs

Anderson executives support rescue plan

Top managers of Arthur Andersen Thursday threw their support behind Paul Volcker’s long-shot rescue plan and warned of “inevitable” layoffs ahead.

Six days after Volcker made his proposal to salvage the firm, Andersen’s U.S. managing partner issued a strong public endorsement of the plan following a meeting between company officials and the former Federal Reserve chairman.

Construction

Building totals up in state

Construction totals in Kansas are running above 2001 numbers, according to a new report released by the McGraw Hill Construction Information Group.

Construction companies secured contracts for $315 million worth of projects in the state during February, the report said. Those totals are 22 percent higher than construction totals for February 2001.

Year-to-date construction contracts total $726 million, up 24 percent from the first two months of 2001.

The company compiles the information by surveying construction companies and the totals include both building construction and road and highway projects.

Closing

Stockyards end 100-year run

For more than a century, farmers and ranchers across the West and the Midwest sent their steers and hogs to the vast, noisy, foul-smelling maze of wooden pens and auction lots of Sioux City.

On Thursday, that long history ended with a final livestock auction.

The Sioux City Stockyards closed after the auction, a victim of advances in shipping and a changed farm economy. What remains of the stockyards is to be torn down to make room for a Home Depot.

Trading

Markets closed for holiday

Financial and commodity markets are scheduled to be closed today in observance of the Easter holiday. They are scheduled to reopen Monday. The market roundup still will be published in Saturday’s Business section.