To: username who wrote (28744 ) 12/28/1997 6:23:00 PM From: Glenn D. Rudolph Respond to
Compaq named Forbes' company of the year
Reuters Story - December 28, 1997 16:16
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Forbes magazine named Compaq Computer
Corp. as the company of the year, saying the computer
maker "stands out as a company that has come from nowhere to
occupy a powerful position in today's key industry."
Forbes in its latest issue also said that financial
services was the best performing sector in 1997, followed by
entertainment and insurance.
The monthly magazine said that "if you think Compaq is just
an assembler and marketer of boxes, you are behind the times.
"Since taking over the Houston-based Compaq in 1991,
Eckhard Pfeiffer has put together the preeminent Wintel (clone)
computer company, with $25 billion in sales for 1997. No other
company -- not Dell Computer Corp. , not
Hewlett-Packard , not IBM -- even comes close in
the clone business."
Forbes picked Compaq out of 1,286 public companies that it
examined for its 50th Annual Report on American Industry, based
on profitability, growth, stock market performance and
consistency.
Forbes said that although Compaq's success is still tied to
the desktop, the company has come roaring into the big-ticket
computer market with a line of products based on standard
microprocessors from Intel Corp. running the standard
Windows NT operating system from Microsoft Corp .
Compaq last year sold 9.5 million PCs which accounted for
about two-thirds of its revenues, it said.
Forbes also reported that against a 31.2 percent rise in
the Standard & Poor's index of 500 stocks through Dec. 2 last
year, the best performing sector in 1997 was the financial
services with a 53.4 percent gain in stock values.
Entertainment followed with 39.3 percent and insurance with
36.7 percent.
The retailing sector included both the best and worst
performers of the annual survey. The best stocks -- Trans World
Entertainment , Ames Department stores and
Musicland Stores -- had gains ranging between 300
percent and 406 percent. But the three worst stocks -- Payless
Cashways , Edison Brothers Stores and Levitz
Furniture -- all suffered massive losses.
