Compaq Has Another Top Job Open As Rando Resigns
By CHRISTOPHER GRIMES
Dow Jones Newswires
NEW YORK -- Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) announced the resignation of another executive, John Rando, leaving a third top position open at the troubled computer company.
Rando led Compaq's computer services business, a position similar to the one he held at Digital Equipment Corp. before Compaq acquired that company last year. The services business was one of the primary reasons Compaq acquired Digital.
His departure comes less than a month after Compaq's board dismissed Eckhard Pfieffer from the chief executive's office. Earl Mason quit as chief financial officer on the same day. The company is being run by co-founder and Chairman Benjamin Rosen.
A Compaq spokesman said Rando, 47, was leaving to pursue his own interests, adding that he wasn't dismissed. His resignation takes effect July 1.
Daniel Kunstler, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, said Compaq's services business couldn't compare with the mega-success of International Business Machines Corp.'s (IBM). But the division was improving, he said.
"They are rekindling growth" in services, Kunstler said.
Kunstler said he didn't know the reasons behind Rosen's departure. But he said it made sense that an executive who had weathered turmoil at the sagging Digital, then an acquisition and its subsequent restructuring, probably wouldn't want to hang around for yet another dramatic change.
"There is going to be a new CEO, and I'm sure he's going to want his or her own team," Kunstler said. "That may include all the people who are there today," but it may not.
Rando oversaw 27,000 employees, most of whom came from Digital, although there were also people from Tandem, which Compaq acquired in 1997.
Rosen said in a press release that Rando "leaves the services organization in a strong leadership position."
Since taking the reins along with two other directors in April, Rosen has repeatedly pledged not to be simply a caretaker in the CEO role. Indeed, the company only Monday announced it was streamlining its complicated PC distribution system.
-By Christopher Grimes; 201-938-5253
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