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

To: Satyr who wrote (13374)	1/13/1998 9:49:00 AM
From: Dan Packer	Respond to of 97611

For those who think of CPQ as a Dell-like box maker. They were the number one "Company on the Rise" in DATABASE Programing & Design: 1998 Database Dozen Special Feature A Dozen Companies on the Rise plus a selection of categories to watch Compaq/Tandem Computers Houston / Cupertino, California "By joining forces with Tandem, Compaq Computer has created one of the industry's most powerful global computer solutions companies." That's what Eckhard Pfeiffer, Compaq's president and CEO said on August 29 when shareholders approved his company's merger with Tandem Computers. It sums up what Compaq hopes to become. The Tandem merger gives Compaq the arsenal it needs to battle its true competitors--that is, the other vendors with the full range of server offerings, namely IBM, HP, Sun, Digital Equipment Corp., and NCR. The last few years have been a topsy-turvy struggle for Tandem; under CEO Roel Pieper, it has been in transition from a high-end proprietary OLTP vendor to one that offers an open, scalable solution for OLTP and DSS. The Cupertino company still boasts a large installed base that includes many of the world's most performance-sensitive corporations. During the last two years, Tandem has focused on its bold move into the Windows NT market. It is a close partner with Microsoft and was prominent at its Scalability Day. Using its NonStop SQL/MX and ServerNet middleware, Tandem showed a 16-node cluster running with a two-terabyte database. The demonstration not only made NT look "enterprise," but also established Tandem at the VLDB end of the NT market. It may be a while before the market actually stretches that far, but Tandem will be ready. The Compaq/Tandem merger was the industry's most significant business deal of the year. On paper, the fusion made perfect sense, but mergers are never as easy. There are bound to be culture clashes; living in different worlds, the two companies have different sales cycles and customer expectations. But if it works, the combo could become a colossus. Pieper was a role-player at TDM. He was a facilitator. Perkins was the key, and he remains on the Board of CPQ. Dan