H-P Leans Towards Its Managers in Setting Up New Organization
By: Gary McWilliams, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
HOUSTON -- Two of every three middle-management appointments recently made by Hewlett-Packard Co . (HPQ) went to its executives over managers from the acquired Compaq Computer (NYSE: CPQ - news Corp., according to an analysis of the latest appointments.
In a few of the new groups, the appointments are split fairly evenly between the two -- such as Network Storage and its industry and corporate account portion of its big-computer unit. Elsewhere, the appointments are a patchwork of H-P and Compaq teams that mirror the individual companies' market-share rankings.
"Where Compaq is strong, they kept the team, and kept the products. Where Compaq is weak, they went to H-P," said Terry Shannon, who writes a computer industry newsletter called Shannon Knows HPC.
According to the appointment documents, H-P managers will rule the company's big-iron group, called Business Critical Systems, with six of eight division executives from H-P units. H-P managers also dominate the consumer-PC business unit executive staff, where the Palo Alto , Calif. , computer maker eclipsed Compaq after just a few years of head-to-head competition.
The management of combined companies' Intel-based server unit is entirely made up of Compaq executives, who also staff most of the new Notebook PC business unit. Compaq has the world's largest share of Intel-based servers and ranks third in notebook PCs, above H-P's eighth place worldwide ranking.
Tuesday, the combined companies management teams and continuing product lines are to be presented to employees and customers in ceremonies broadcast from H- P's Palo Alto headquarters. The company is expected to gradually remove products where overlap exists, such as servers and PCs.
In Houston , Compaq's headquarters since its founding in 1982, building and access signs are draped in blue wrapping. Underneath, the red Compaq signs have been replaced with blue H-P name and logo that will be unveiled here Tuesday morning.
-By Gary McWilliams, The Wall Street Journal; 713-547-9206 |
