Ashlee Rocks !!
And Ashlee Vance was about the ONLY reporter I can think of to believe in HP after the Compaq acquisition. When the WSJ, NYT, Ziff-Davis, and the rest of the herd sheepishly denounced the merger.. ONE MAN stood alone and saw the value.
The Reg, (and Ashlee in particular) should be applauded as the only medium who saw "beneath the covers" and refused to follow slavishly with the rest of the Media (and Wall Street.) If you trace back with Google (and you can) everybody was applauding Dell (then the Wall street Darling) and doubting the possibility of a combined Compaq / HP. The naysayers were sure the merger would fail. Sure, it took a ride through the Carly days to emerge a success, but the fundamental concept proved a good idea. Nowhere to go but up !!
Ashlee showed guts to buck the tide (and I hope he bought some stock !!! ) He deserves some reward for courage (as well as insight.)