Sperry said it would move carefully on a merger.

At the computer maker’s annual meeting, Gerald G. Probst, Sperry’s chairman, said that the firm will consider all merger proposals but that “we will not sacrifice our future to near-term expediency.” He said merger talks with Burroughs were broken off by Burroughs after Sperry failed to reach a decision within a Burroughs-imposed deadline. Sperry officials had reservations about the proposal because of antitrust considerations, the redundancy of product lines and the possible negative effect of such a move on Sperry’s current computer customers, he said.