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

To: Andreas who wrote (18841)	3/2/1998 9:08:00 PM
From: John Koligman	Respond to of 97611

PCweek article on Dell/CPQ today.. Rib-eaters chew on the fate of direct sales By Eric Lundquist 03.02.98 We're in the Bastrop BBQ eating ribs, drinking Lone Star and listening to the Rev. Ken Kesselus of the Calvary Episcopal Church explain how Bastrop came within a vote or two of becoming the capital of Texas. The stop was coordinated by Bastrop native and PC Week Corporate Partner Bill Herndon, the vice president of technology for the BankAmerica Mortgage group, and provided a welcome, technology-free respite between daylong briefings for the PC Week advisory board. The briefings were provided by cross-state rivals Dell Computer and Compaq. While Austin won the final vote for state capital, the rib-eaters in Bastrop were undecided whether Austin-based Dell's direct sales model could continue to gain ground on Houston-based Compaq's channel and acquisition model in the battle for the title of Texas' PC capital. Dell has a lot going for it. It finished its fiscal year topping the $12 billion mark, is clearly the leader in using the Internet to restructure the business of selling computers, and has built a manufacturing machine tuned to customization and speed of delivery that is currently unmatched. Of course, Compaq is no slouch. Fresh from acquiring Digital and Tandem, the company is in hot pursuit of becoming one of the top three computer companies worldwide. According to CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer, who spent more than 1 hour with PC Week's advisory board, Compaq's internal goal is to make it to Fortune's list of the Top 10 "most admired" companies by the year 2000. In the race for bigness, companies like Dell and Compaq are now gaining the heft to become equals in bargaining with Intel and Microsoft. This gain promises benefits for customers who, by pressuring computer vendors, can push the Microsoft/Intel combo to deliver promised features and products before making more promises. In the current climate, the consolidation of computer vendors will probably only accelerate. And there were a couple of other trends that were very evident during last week's company briefings. The days of buying on price/performance only have waned. The computer vendors now want to be your partner. But customers know that these tighter partnerships tie them more strongly to a vendor and boost switching costs if they are unhappy. Reducing that fear of being bound too closely is now a big item for vendors. Can the direct sales model be extended to more of the computing infrastructure, including corporate networks, Internet-type appliances and even specific software applications? This is an area where Compaq's reseller strategy still holds a big advantage. Finally, can't the computer vendors come up with a notebook where the cases don't crack, the little doors and flaps don't fall off, and the disk drives don't fail after falling off an airplane's pull-down tray? Produce that product, and the Corporate Partners will buy you a BBQ dinner next time they're down in Bastrop. Comments? Contact Eric Lundquist at eric_lundquist@zd.com. Send E-mail to PC Week

To: Andreas who wrote (18841)	3/2/1998 9:24:00 PM
From: Loki	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Andreas... RE: "And believe me I know germans!!" Interesting observations. I believe, unless you are extremely young, that your parents are of a different generation than many of the German executives that are in the corporate board room today. There is an extremely well know book "Nieden im Nadelstreifen" (engl. "Imbiciles in Pinstripes") which clearly points out that not all German executives are as highly regarded as Mr. Pfeiffer. The regions in Germany are also very different and could very likely influence persons in different ways. Maybe the US influence Mr. Pfeiffer as well. If you look at my post with jorge and hpeace in late January it is this profile of Mr. Pfeiffer that I was trying to determine. The head of a company will very likely influence the culture of the company. I believe this to be an important ingredient in the DEC acquisition. Loki P.S. Having served on the boards of German companies I have met qualified and non-qualified individuals, just as in the USA. Did you notice that over half of CPQ top management have German names?

To: Andreas who wrote (18841)	3/2/1998 9:26:00 PM
From: S.C. Barnard	Respond to of 97611

Re: muccoy- He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it. (Joseph Romm, Washington)

To: Andreas who wrote (18841)	3/2/1998 9:43:00 PM
From: Dulane U. Ponder	Respond to of 97611

Andreas, I don't think anyone on this thread needs to hear from you what they should have done. dp

To: Andreas who wrote (18841)	3/3/1998 1:28:00 PM
From: David E. Taylor	Respond to of 97611

Andreas: "Nothing of any significance has occurred since August 15, 1997..." That all depends on your point of view, and Mark's is just as valid as yours. I just checked back at my trading log and the chart for CPQ to remind myself that in fact lots of significant moves (both up and down) have taken place in CPQ's stock price since 8/15/97, and that I derived significant profits from about 75% of them -- 2 trades in August/September and 5 since October 27. Meantime, my original core CPQ holding, bought at (split adjusted) 23 last July, has appreciated around 30% - show me a mutual fund that has a better return over the same time period. Sure, if you bought at 35 last October before the crash you're now feeling pretty glum, but that's because you're looking at 30 at wondering if you're ever going to show a profit. Post again in July or so and tell us you've just broken out the champagne! Good luck with your investing. David T.