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

To: Satyr who wrote (21733)	3/13/1998 9:44:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 97611

Computer Reseller News reported Digital's sales of servers have fallen in the wake of the buyout announcement. Digital strikes back at 'FUD' strategy Boston Globe It's FUD-slinging time. ''FUD'' -- for fear, uncertainty, and doubt -- is the business world's shorthand for the tactics companies often use to take advantage of a competitor's perceived weaknesses, especially during times of transition, such as a merger. No sooner did Digital Equipment Corp. announce plans to be acquired by Compaq Computer Corp. than its rivals mounted a ferocious campaign to snatch away some of the Maynard, Mass., company's customers. By sowing doubts about Compaq's commitment to support users of Digital's older computer technologies such as its workhorse OpenVMS and Unix operating systems, rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc., both based in Palo Alto, hope to lure away uneasy Digital customers. ''Their sales reps are really exploiting the FUD factor,'' said Josh Napua, senior vice president of Wyle Electronics, the nation's largest reseller of Digital products. ''If I were HP or Sun, I would do it.'' Because federal laws prohibit companies in the throes of a merger from speaking publicly about the deal -- or about virtually any aspect of their business, for that matter -- they are particularly vulnerable to such competitive assaults. But in a carefully worded joint advertisement that appeared Thursday in the San Jose Mercury News, the Boston Globe and several national publications, Digital and Compaq are striking back.

To: Satyr who wrote (21733)	3/13/1998 9:46:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 97611

DEC server sale has fallen off, part III Compaq's chief executive, Eckhard Pfeiffer, has written to Digital customers, assuring them Compaq will continue to invest in all three Digital products. But Compaq and Digital have decided they had to do more. Mary Allard, Digital's vice president of marketing communications, said her company was already planning to run an advertisement touting Unix, OpenVMS and Alpha, ''but we wanted to sharpen the point to address the slings of HP. So we retooled our approach.''