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Technology Stocks : Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ralf who wrote (3085)	3/25/1998 12:35:00 PM
From: stock bull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3276

Ralf, yes DEC is a company to be proud of with respect to their customer base, product offerings, service and technology. I suspect Palmer's money will come from his stock options, bonus payments, and other financial agreements he has with DEC. It's the old story, the guys on top also do well in these deals. The working guys get the short end of the stick. CPQ is essentially a box maker and sells PC's and servers. I think they wanted DEC for its corporate accounts, service division, and technical capabilities. However, I don't know what CPQ will do with the existing products such as; alpha, strongarm, VMS, etc. In my opinion, CPQ is getting DEC for a steal....$30/share and 0.945 CPQ shares for each DEC share. After you consider the cash that DEC has, and will belong to CPQ when the deal closes, CPQ is really paying much less for DEC and the deal would suggest. Although CPQ is currently experiencing some problems with inventory, transition to a built-to-order company, and the PC price war, I still think they are a good company with good management. Sure hope you and your associates do well during the transition period and thereafter. Stock Bull PS: Have you ever come across reel-to-reel tape drives known as the TU 77 and TU 78???

To: ralf who wrote (3085)	3/25/1998 11:47:00 PM
From: Greg Jung	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3276

ralf, CPQ does make a lot of money on consumer PCs but they are also "high tech" in the collective use of PCs for large organizations. I can't be more specific, because I don't know more, but they aren't just garage boxmakers. Compaq was the first IBM clone machine that outpaced the IBMs at lower cost, and are probably a good part of the reason for IBM's restructuring. With the acquisition of DEC assets, compaq has become a full-blown computer corporation, with a more successful low-end and small-office component. The question that weighs on the stock these days is, can Compaq be that company without being what DEC was: can it destroy the management culture it inherits from DEC? Whether or not the strategic thinking at Compaq can handle the big leagues with Alpha development (already put in jepardy by Digital through a) ceding production control to Intel and b) designing a "microsoft only" version), Unix promotion AND VMS ... these are big open questions ... Can such a heterogenous computing environment be justified? hmmmmm.... maybe there was a point in there, somewhere. Mostly questions, though. :) Greg Greg