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

To: Techie who wrote (26812)	5/30/1998 6:25:00 PM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Techie - I think Gordon Bell summed up Alpha's problems under DEC when he said 'if DEC was marketing sushi they would try to sell it as cold dead fish, then wonder why the inventory didn't move'. DEC has lots of great technology but has been paralyzed for a long time with no coherent product strategy and no ability to drive either standards or volume. CPQ is in a position to drive both, and also has the stroke with MSFT to get real alpha support rather than the lip service MSFT gave to DEC. All CPQ has to do is guarantee the volume and MSFT will be there IMO. The reason the Merced delay is important is because Intel got the volume industry to care about 64 bit computing, something DEC could never do. For example, MSFT never considered a 64 bit NT for Alpha, but jumped up for Intel. Guess what MSFT is developing 64 bit NT on today - Alpha. Now that Intel has dropped the ball on execution CPQ / DEC can fill the demand generated by the Intel machine. Every month of Intel delay is an opportunity for CPQ to get more developers and key accounts to Alpha, whether the eventual target is Alpha or Merced. And frankly, once they get in the door, as long as Alpha is fully supported by the key industry players (and it will be) and as long as it is faster and cheaper, Intel will have to work to move the customers back. Since I also expect CPQ to have a very strong Merced play, they should be in a position to win no matter which way the customers eventually go. This gives CPQ a golden opportunity to get the majority of the Merced on-ramp and showcase Alpha at the same time. BTW I agree about the current thinking of major account CIOs regarding DEC, and also that CPQ has a LOOOOOONNNNGGG way to go to be credible at that level. That is the key challenge for CPQ IMO and only time will tell if they are up to it. I know they understand the problem, we'll see if they have the will to fix it. Pfeiffer has not shown any hesitation to make the hard calls when the stakes are high and I would not expect him to back away from this one.