But HP, a company synonymous with the birth of Silicon Valley, and Compaq Computer, a Houston-based firm which once pioneered PC price-cutting, may yet have to restructure their deal or abandon it entirely.

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The reasons for the failure are numerous, but the new CEO Meg Whitman is smart enough to realize it can't simply abandon the market entirely.

ENGADGET: Meg Whitman says HP has to 'offer a smartphone' Mobile

With the enormous increase in the taxation of dividends, high net worth investors may be tempted to abandon dividend-paying stocks entirely.

FORBES: Tax on Dividend-Paying Stocks Rising to 74%

Representative HENRY HYDE (Republican, Illinois): Congress was being asked to vote to remove itself from the process almost entirely, and abandon its Constitutional role.

NPR: Congress Moves Toward Approval of India Nuclear Agreement