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

To: MikeyT who wrote (75070)	1/4/2000 9:13:00 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Stocks to watch Wednesday Compaq bulks up in direct selling, Budget cuts jobs as PowerCerv goes more Linux January 04, 2000: 6:43 p.m. ET NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Compaq beat a wider path toward the hot market for direct sales of computers, highlighting Tuesday's after-hours action, while auto-renter Budget said it plans to cut about 1,000 jobs. Compaq Computer Embattled personal-computer vendor Compaq Computer (CPQ) unveiled plans to bulk up in the direct-selling business, agreeing to purchase order-management and other systems from Inacom (ICO) for about $370 million in cash. "This purchase makes great strategic sense for Compaq because it gives us the right capabilities quickly and cost-effectively,” said Michael Capellas, Compaq president and chief executive officer. "We'll be better equipped to meet the diverse and changing needs of our U.S. customers - particularly our major accounts which clearly want to go direct - increasing our potential for growth," added Capellas. Click here for an S&P Futures quote Compaq said it would use the new assets to run a separately managed subsidiary, reporting to Mike Winkler, Compaq's general manager of commercial personal computing. As part of the arrangement, Compaq entered in to a services, supply, and sales agreement with Inacom, a leading reseller of PCs. Budget Group Auto-rental company Budget Group (BD) announced it will take an pre-tax charge of $90 million to $95 million in its fourth quarter to pay for a wide restructuring by which it will quit the car-sales business, sell non-core assets and consolidate its Ryder TRS headquarter and field operations. Budget said it would cut about 1,000 jobs outside of its customer service operation. The moves, Budget said, are part of plans to reduce overhead and other expenses by an estimated $100 million a year. Budget said, however, it expects fourth-quarter operating income, before the pre-tax charge, to be in line with analysts' consensus forecasts. Analysts polled by First Call Corp. expect Budget to post a loss of 45 cents per share in the fourth quarter. "Our focus is on increasing pre-tax margins and returns on capital in our core car and truck rental operations," said Sandy Miller, Budget Group CEO and chairman. DAMARK International Shopping club and catalog retailer DAMARK International (DMRK) announced it expects its fourth-quarter earnings to top analysts' consensus forecasts on strength in its membership business. The company has been working to reduce its dependence on the catalog business, which is expected to face lower growth rates than Damark's membership-driven services. "Overall, our fourth-quarter financial performance should be outstanding despite disappointing results from our catalog operations," said Mark Cohn, CEO and chairman at Damark, adding, "our membership business continues to perform well ahead of plan and we have successfully eliminated our dependence on our catalog segment for membership growth.” DAMARK provides a host of functions for top retailers, such as order and payment processing services, inventory receipt and warehousing, among other things. Click here for an after-hours quote PowerCerv And getting a dose of market magic related to the Linux operating system was PowerCerv (PCRV), up 3-5/8 to 9-38 after hours. The software maker said it would support Linux in its upcoming release of its ERP Plus software suite for businesses. In a statement, Mike Simmons, PowerCerv's president, said: "With the increasing popularity of Linux, we felt that we should invest some of our development assets into this future market." "The costs associated with Linux might make it attractive to certain portions of the mid-market,” he added. With stock and bond markets already volatile in 2000, investors are likely to keep close watch on economic data that could influence Federal Reserve policy on short-term interest rates. On tap for Wednesday is a report on November factory orders. According to a poll by briefing.com, economists are expecting a rise of 0.9 percent from a decline of 0.2 percent in October. info Widely held stocks Active stocks Market gainers Market losers sites View the latest market update via Netshow See how your mutual funds are doing Need investing advice? Try Quicken.com on fn Track your stocks click here for a printer friendly version click here to email this story to a friend Copyright © 2000 CNN America, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms under which this service is provided to you.