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

To: Night Writer who wrote (78845)	2/28/2000 3:59:00 PM
From: Piotr Koziol	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

A lot more detail on the new CFO appointment: Monday February 28 3:37 PM ET Compaq Names Kodak's Jesse Greene As CFO By Eric Auchard NEW YORK (Reuters) - Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) on Monday named Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE:EK - news) finance executive Jesse Greene as chief financial officer, capping a year-long management changing of the guard at the world's largest personal computer maker. Greene, a 29-year technology industry veteran, now serves as Kodak's director of business strategy and information technology, where he has played a key role in a string of divestitures during six years at the U.S. photography giant. On taking up his new role in early April, Greene will become one of the highest ranking African-Americans in the high-technology sector. Compaq ranks No. 1 in PCs and is the world's No. 2 supplier of computer hardware and services, behind International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news). Greene will join the Compaq top management team under President and Chief Executive Michael Capellas, who came to Compaq in July after a management house-cleaning that followed a string of financial disappointments and a resulting stock price drop. Capellas had previously named four senior executives to head Compaq's key operating businesses and turned outside to hire both a new e-commerce business head and a human resources chief. The company is continuing its search for a senior vice president of marketing and communications, a new position. ``The issue of chemistry was extremely important to me and finding the balance between what I do well and what Jesse does well,' Capellas said in a phone interview. ``I would like to spend more of my time externally focused,' Capellas told Reuters. ``With Jesse we were looking for someone who has a background in strategy and finance and who can manage some of the complex partnerships we have.' Greene had served as acting chief financial officer at the Rochester, N.Y.-based photography giant following the sudden death of his mentor and former CFO Harry Kavetas, whom he had followed to Kodak from IBM. Greene had been considered as an inside candidate for full-time chief financial officer at Kodak, but the job went to Bob Brust, the former chief financial officer of Unisys Corp. (NYSE:UIS - news), who joined Kodak at the start of this year. While at Kodak, Greene was responsible for negotiating a string of divestitures as the company shed non-core businesses such as copiers and insurance in order to focus on its photography and imaging business. ``He's an accomplished deal-maker,' Capellas said, citing Greene's role in setting up a recent alliance between Kodak and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news), the dominant maker of desktop computer printers. ``He has a reputation as a very tough negotiator,' agreed Jack Kelly, a Kodak analyst at brokerage Goldman Sachs. Prior to Kodak, Greene spent 23 years at Compaq rival IBM, where he served as assistant treasurer and in various other finance-related roles within IBM's customer financing unit. ``This is a tremendous opportunity and my experience and skills are well-matched to be Compaq's chief financial officer,' Greene said in a statement announcing the move. 'While we have hard work ahead of us, I am excited by the challenge to accelerate the growth and success of Compaq.' Greene had been under consideration by Compaq for the past two or three months, Capellas said. Talks heated up in the past three or four weeks, with several face-to-face meetings. Capellas said Greene's compensation would be tied to a new performance-based incentive plan he has put in place for senior executives of the company. A spokesman said Green would receive a base annual salary of $550,000 and a first-year cash bonus, ranging from $550,000 to $1.375 million, based in part on the company's success in meeting performance targets. He will also receive a sign-on bonus of $500,000 and 500,000 shares of Compaq stock options priced at trading levels as of the first week of April. Shares of Compaq were down 13/16 in afternoon trading to 25 1/4 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock trades at about half the level it hit a little over a year ago.