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

To: Roads End who wrote (33247)	9/22/1998 4:07:00 PM
From: D. Swiss	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Is this an earnings warning or not?: "Compaq Says Asia Sales to Be Lower Than Expected Singapore, Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Compaq Computer Corp., the world's biggest maker of personal computers, said sales from Asia this year will be lower than it expected because of the region's currency and debt crisis. The number of computers the Houston-based company sells in Asia will be little changed from a year ago, and overall sales for the region will fall short of targets, said Paul Chan, vice president of Compaq Computer Asia/Pacific Pte. He declined to disclose Compaq's sales target. Compaq got about 5 percent of its $24.6 billion in revenue from Asia last year. Its warning comes as Chief Financial Officer Earl Mason cautioned two weeks ago that Latin American sales also are slowing, although North America and Europe, which account for about 86 percent of revenue, are in good shape. ''There are signs that things aren't getting any worse (for companies in Asia) but they sure aren't getting better,'' said Stephen Dube, an analyst with Wasserstein Perella Securities in New York, who rates Compaq shares ''hold.'' Compaq rose 7/16 to 32 1/16 in early trading. Two months ago, Chan said Compaq would revise sales targets for the region amid the economic crisis and a global slowdown in PC sales. ''No company can avoid the storms that are going on all around us, so we did in fact take a reduction in some of our targets,'' Chan said. Compaq, however, is still investing in Asia. The company will spend $15 million over five years to build a sales network to sell computers over the Internet in the region, Chan said. Analysts predict Compaq's third-quarter earnings will fall, even as most of its competitors report increases. The company is expected to earn 6 cents a share, down from 33 cents a year earlier, according to analysts polled by First Call Corp. Compaq is cutting prices to shed the last of its leftover models and is reigning in costs at Digital Equipment Corp., which it acquired in June for more than $9 billion. It isn't expected to report results better than year-earlier levels until the first quarter. 10:15:17 09/22/1998 Any redistribution of Bloomberg content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Bloomberg L.P. Any reference to the material must be properly attributed to Bloomberg News. The information herein was obtained from sources which Bloomberg L.P. and its suppliers believe reliable, but they do not guarantee its accuracy. Neither the information, nor any opinion expressed, constitutes a solicitation of the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities.(C) Copyright 1998 Bloomberg L.P. BLOOMBERG, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Financial Markets, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg News Radio are trademarks, tradenames and service marks of Bloomberg L.P. " Drew

To: Roads End who wrote (33247)	9/22/1998 4:13:00 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 97611

Compaq targets school market By Jim Davis Staff Writer, CNET News.com September 22, 1998, 12:40 p.m. PT Compaq is making its move for the fall selling season with the rollout today of several new additions to the Presario lineup of notebooks and computers, including a sub-$1,000 PC for the education market. The company is offering a Presario 2416ES model with a MII processor from Cyrix for the education market that is priced at $999, including a 14-inch monitor. Compaq is also rolling out a notebook that is mainly aimed for use in the higher education market. The Presario 1235ES comes with a 266-MHz K6 processor from Advanced Micro Devices, a 12.1-inch dual scan display, and a 4GB hard disk drive for $1,749. Low cost PCs from companies like Compaq have been chipping away at Apple Computer's lead in the education market. Compaq was second to Apple in the education market in 1997, according to International Data Corporation. Apple still maintains a significant lead in the education market, but the Cupertino, California, company has seen its once unassailable lead slip of late, according to analysts. But this is simply symptomatic of a broader trend, according to market researchers. Microsoft and PC manufacturers have been making steady inroads in a market segment that will approach $5 billion in revenue in 1998, according to market research firm Dataquest. Compaq today also introduced new notebooks and mid-range desktops for the consumer market priced starting at $1,199, specifically targeting direct system vendors Dell and Gateway. Compaq claimed its new Presario 5150, which ships with a 350-MHz AMD K6-2 processor and 8GB hard disk drive, is priced 24 percent less than an equivalent model from Dell and 7 percent less than a system from Gateway, when factoring in the cost of shipping Dell or Gateway systems to a customer. Also, Compaq's $1,199 price includes a $100 rebate that requires a customer sign on for 50 hours of free Internet access with a preferred service provider. On many fronts, Compaq is responding to the threat from Dell. Dell has made tremendous sales gains in part due to the company's cost and operations efficiencies from its direct sales model. The company closed in on Compaq as the second largest PC vendor in the U.S. in the second quarter shipments, although Compaq has a far stronger overseas presence.

To: Roads End who wrote (33247)	9/22/1998 11:41:00 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Steve.... Conference call The conference call was last Tuesday morning, 9/15/98. I'm really surprised that there was not any info put out on the conference call. It sounded really positive to me. In a nut shell he said industry growing at 15% annual rate, more in second half of the year than first half of the year and that CPQ was on track to do 2-3x the industry. He said North America and Europe are strong and that they accounted for 86% of CPQ revenue. He said inventory levels were good and he has seen an increase in average sales price on units, which he couldn't explain. He also hinted at talks going on regarding alta vista which we have since heard about. He also said that the DEC intergration was going well. Perhaps you get a summary from someone and see if you agree with my impression.