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

To: hlpinout who wrote (95604)	3/1/2002 7:07:10 PM
From: hlpinout	Respond to of 97611

ShadowRAM: March 4, 2002 By ShadowRAM CRN - 12:34 PM EST Fri., Mar. 01, 2002 CHUANG SHOWS OFF HIS ITALIAN MOTORCYCLE AT EWORLD RUMORS ABOUND ABOUT IMPENDING IBM JOB CUTS SALESFORCE.COM SPONSORS SWANK FETE FOR TIBET Hewlett-Packard Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina rolled out a star-studded video at HP's analyst meeting last week to promote the company's proposed megamerger with Compaq Computer. Among the "customers" endorsing the deal were Dreamworks SKG partner Jeffrey Katzenberg, AOL Time Warner Chairman Stephen Case and CitiGroup Chairman Sanford Weill. Hoping to get a laugh, Fiorina, the only top HP executive who was not available to the press during a luncheon, said HP's plan is to officially roll out the new company on April 2, rather than April Fool's day. When none of the buttoned-down crowd responded, Fiorina said: "That's a joke." Tough crowd, Carly. Tough crowd. It's a story you'd figure Michael Dell would love: A young, Texas college student named Dell dreams up an idea for an independent business venture and writes a detailed business plan to make it work. Only this time, the college student is Jacob Dell. His idea is for a theme park, and he wants to call it "Dell Land." Evidently, Dell Computer Chairman and CEO Michael Dell isn't thrilled with the idea: His corporate lawyers caught up with Jacob Dell after the kid presided over a Texas Lutheran University student government meeting. "At the conclusion of our regular meeting, I was served papers by representatives of their legal team," 22-year-old Jacob Dell says. "I definitely was surprised." Dell is making a federal case out of it. U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery in the Western District of Texas is handling Dell vs. Dell. Jacob Dell says he doesn't yet have counsel. BEA Systems CEO Alfred Chuang made quite an entrance into his keynote at BEA World in San Diego last week by riding in on his Italian-made 2002 MV August motorcycle. Later, he told us that the people in charge at the San Diego Convention Center were nervous about his stunt, since another CEO recently made his keynote entrance at the convention center on horseback, and the horse reared up and threw the executive. Fortunately, Chuang's stunt went off without incident. Some vendors make no bones about wanting to annihilate the competition, but others profess a more peaceful approach to market domination. In this spirit, upstart ASP Salesforce.com has been a supporter of various charities since its inception, including The Tibet House, chaired by Uma Thurman's dad, Robert. The company feted a number of lucky journalists and customers in New York late last month, treating them to The Tibet House Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall featuring musical legends David Bowie, Philip Glass, Patti Smith and Ray Davies, among others. Sources close to IBM say significant staff cuts are imminent across the board, including positions in the server, microelectronics and other groups. The always-in-flux IBM Global Services axed about 400 jobs in late January, although those cuts are merely part of the usual ebb and flow at the gigantic 150,000-person unit, a spokesman said. An internal memo listing the job titles and ages of the folks under siege at IBM Global Services was helpfully posted on a Web site, the name of which cannot be printed here. All employees were told to find jobs, if they could, in other IBM groups, but failing that, Feb. 28 is their last day at Big Blue. An IBM spokeswoman said she would "not comment on rumors."

To: hlpinout who wrote (95604)	3/1/2002 7:11:22 PM
From: hlpinout	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

HP-Compaq Transition Plans Are Ready By Steven Burke CRN New York - 3:23 PM EST Fri., Mar. 01, 2002 It took 600 full-time employees and 500,000 hours, but the "tough" decisions about products and channel strategies for a merged Hewlett-Packard-Compaq Computer have been made. With the HP shareholder vote on March 19 looming, HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina promised last week at HP's analyst meeting here that a combined HP-Compaq will be "executing from day one, rather than deciding" which product lines will stay and which will be eliminated. Fiorina and her management team detailed the integration process which includes a "post-merger integration team" working alongside consultants from McKinsey & Co., Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte Consulting. Ann Livermore, president of HP's services organization, said a team of about 60 people from both companies mapped the integration plans for the services businesses, which includes outsourcing, consulting and customer support. "We have an aggressive adopt-and-go strategy," she said. Livermore said cultural integration is going smoothly, describing the two companies as very similar. "If I were to close my eyes at these meetings, I couldn't tell you if it was an HP employee or a Compaq employee speaking," she said. If successful, the merger would catapult HP to No. 3 in the services arena behind IBM Global Services and EDS. Fiorina said it would create a services business projected to grow at 10 percent to 12 percent. Last week's meeting came as HP dissident board member Walter Hewlett, who is waging an all-out proxy battle to kill the proposed deal, released information at the 11th hour that HP's compensation committee on Sept. 3 had contemplated two-year pay packages for Fiorina and Compaq Chairman and CEO Michael Capellas estimated at about $70 million and $48 million, respectively. HP and Compaq said no such employment contracts exist. Fiorina said the pay packages will be closely tied to performance. Glen Jodoin, vice president of solution provider GreenPages, Kittery, Maine, said the release of the potential compensation packages could lead some observers to question whether "decisions are being clouded" by potential pay packages. But ultimately, Jodoin said he is seeking closure. "HP doesn't have a whole lot of market share, and Compaq doesn't have a whole lot of focus," he said. "I don't know whether it is good or bad, but I do know we need strong partners."