Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (64208)	6/27/1999 8:09:00 PM
From: Andreas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

IBM kicking cpq's butt! Here's part of an article I picked up on the intc thread. IBM's Chairman Louis V. Gerstner Jr. held his annual briefing for Wall Street analysts last year, he was brutally frank about the computer giant's PC server business, a segment of the industry that was fueling spectacular growth at rivals Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) and Dell Computer Corp (DELL). ''We missed this one so badly that I don't even like to think about it,'' he told analysts. ''We let Compaq run out and grab the PC server business.'' How much did Compaq snatch? Its 38% market share in 1997 was more than triple IBM's. Now, however, Gerstner can hardly contain his glee. ''We've got great momentum,'' he crows. Indeed, for the first time in years, IBM is winning back customers and giving competitors fits. According to market researcher International Data Corp., sales of IBM's Intel-based Netfinity servers are up 63% in the first quarter of this year from the same quarter a year ago. IBM's market share for the same period climbed from 11% to 14%. And, in the past six months, IBM says it has won more than $50 million in PC server business with important customers such as Chase Manhattan (CMB), McDonald's (MCD), and Kinko's. Even sweeter: In over half of those deals, IBM says it is replacing Compaq equipment. Concedes Mary McDonnel, a Compaq vice-president for servers: ''We have seen IBM come back a little bit.'' But she insists Compaq isn't losing big time to IBM. ''It's ebb and flow,'' she says. I have posted in the past the suggestion that cpq was losing market share due in part to an obnoxious arrogance fueled by an egomaniac named E.P. Sadly, this arrogance was too often transmitted in no uncertain terms to cpq's customers. Result? Customers voted with their pocketbook and went elsewhere. Lets hope that Rosen and the new CEO can reverse this sickening trend and at least stop the market share decline.