DEC Sold to Compaq!

From: Peter Prymmer <pvhp_at_forte.com>
Date: Mon Jan 26 19:57:30 1998

classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu
Subj: Re: DEC Sold to Compaq!

Richard A. Cini wrote:

>Well, you could see it coming. Poor financial performance (and hence, weak
>stock price) over the last few years. Weak products. Then, DEC sells-out the
>Crown Jewels (its Alpha procesor) to Intel.
>
> After listening to an interview with Eckhard Pfeiffer of Compaq, they
>paid $9.6 billion for DEC's customer list, not its products. He mentions
>nothing about DEC's products.

According to the scoop on DEC web pages and in comp.os.vms and various VMS
mailing list he said:

 We are committed to...investing in Digital's strategic assets, particularly
 its worldwide service organization, as well as its 64-bit leadership with Alpha
 microprocessors, OpenVMS, Digital UNIX and Windows NT enterprise systems,
 open storage, and software products," Eckhard Pfeiffer, president and chief
 executive officer of Compaq, said in a statement.

And all the VMS geeks are tickled pink that he mentioned VMS first on the list
of OSes and point out that DEC CEO Bob Palmer hasn't been known to do that.

> It's a shame...but it seems to me that DEC should have seen it coming.
>Death comes to the last of the old-line computer companies.

Well IBM is still alive and kicking (rumour is that the whole OS/2 shop has
been fired/re-assigned/real-estate liqidated but AS/400 minis and mainframes
are making a strong comeback). I Don't know much about Unisys though...

Peter Prymmer
Received on Mon Jan 26 1998 - 19:57:30 GMT