Earlier this morning one of my brothers called to tell me CPQ's web site was temporary down. He had discovered this when he tried to access the site to buy a PC and was unable to get in. Calling CPQ's direct order number, he was told the site would be made available shortly.
A few minutes ago, out of curiosity, I got into CPQ's site. What I initially found interesting is that with all the talk on CNBC--and here, on the thread--about CPQ spinning-off AltaVista to its shareholders, the new section at the left, top reads:
NEW Compaq creates
the AltaVista company.
Initial public offering
planned.
compaq.com
An IPO is quite different than a spin-off.
Checking the news under this is the announcement distributed earlier today that starts:
Compaq Creates the AltaVista
Company Extending Its Internet
Leadership Position
Company to Make AltaVista the Leading Internet
Destination Site for Information and E-commerce
HOUSTON, January 26, 1999 - Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE:
CPQ) today announced the creation of the AltaVista Company, with the goal
to make AltaVista the leading destination site for information and e-commerce
on the Internet.
The AltaVista Company, based in Palo Alto, is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Compaq. Compaq officials also announced plans to establish AltaVista as a
publicly traded company.
[remainder of news item not included]
This looks like the kind of announcement a company forced into make a public statement [because of leaks] makes, one they did not want to make because their plans were not finalized. All CPQ is saying in this news release is that AltaVista is going to become a publicly traded, separate from CPQ. The article does not say anything about how CPQ is going to do this. The words, "shareholder," "IPO," and "spin-off" are not used, even once, in the article.
From my perspective, this is a good example of how leaks of partial knowledge can cause a lot of investor confusion--and a lot of corporate headaches.
Lynn |
