NEW YORK, Apr 17, 2002 (The Dallas Morning News - Knight Ridder/Tribune
Business News via COMTEX) -- The New York Stock Exchange wants to go paperless
this year, and the effort could soon depend on two companies' ability to come
together as if they were made for each other.
Compaq Computer Corp., which plans to merge with Hewlett-Packard Co., is
supplying its iPaq handheld computers to the NYSE so traders can digitally
transmit their orders instead of writing them down.
H-P has promised to support Compaq's customers if the merger succeeds, but it
has declined to say whether it will keep iPaqs as a product.
The NYSE's wireless effort shows just how delicately the two companies will have
to handle each customer's situation to make their merger work.
"Satisfying customers is going to be crucial," said Needham & Co. analyst
Charles Wolf. "We won't know if the merger's successful until we can see the
market share numbers to know how customers feel."
Houston-based Compaq and H-P, based in California, are awaiting the results of a
vote-by-vote count of the very close H-P shareholder election to decide the fate
of the merger. The companies may be reeling from one of the bumpiest merger
attempts in recent memory, but their products have made business run smoothly at
the NYSE.
Compaq's sturdiest server computer, called Himalaya, makes the exchange's
central nervous system run without a hiccup. H-P makes less powerful servers
that process the information the stock exchange sorts each night.
That makes both companies - and a skillfully executed merger - essential to the
NYSE's business. |
