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

To: Doug M. who wrote (30274)	8/3/1998 8:34:00 PM
From: fff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Doug, here is some info . CPQ had 4 press releases today. he PR department worked over the weekend as Compaq released four press releases, all of interest to the investor, even though the price didn't move much today. First, Compaq announced they would drop prices on flat panels and CRT monitors, another sign of the aggressive pricing wars in the PC business. Secondly, they announced a marketing program aimed at students returning to school, just another sign that computer hardware is rapidly becoming a commodity. The last two are of the most interest however. Roadrunner, a joint venture between Time Warner, MediaOne, Compaq, Microsoft, and Advance/Newhouse (a publishing house). Roadrunner claims 100,000 subscribers makes it the world's largest cable internet service. (@Home claims 147,000 subscribers, so we're puzzled.) But chest thumping aside, the growth rate of this venture, in which MediaOne and Time Warner Cable combined just two months ago, is pretty impressive. Compaq owns 10%, supplies the servers for the infrastructure of Roadrunner, and will ship PCs with cable-modems and Roadrunner software. But lastly, Compaq announced Alta Vista Discovery, kind of a mini-Alta Vista for your PC. Just as Alta Vista creates an index of the Net for you to search, Discovery creates an index of your own PC and networked drives, and web pages you have browsed for you to search. Looking for the phone number someone sent you in an email six months ago, but can't quite remember who sent it? Know you read something on the Web, but don't remember where? Alta Vista Discovery hunts it down, but just among information you already have. Discovery is free, so we don't immediately see a financial benefit for Compaq, but it is good to see a commitment to Internet products, and further development of Alta Vista, from the hardware company. We are still waiting for a commitment from Compaq to becoming an Internet portal and e-commerce giant. flora