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

To: Roads End who wrote (33680)	10/2/1998 7:11:00 AM
From: Richie	Respond to of 97611

Steve....... You bet, I caught it too. I only caught like the last 30 seconds...... but his comment about "would they have bought digital if they weren't able to take all these right-offs" was pretty bad! I hadn't heard the news of the SEC investigation of the write-off.... is this new info? Sometimes, you just can't win! RichieH

To: Roads End who wrote (33680)	10/2/1998 8:47:00 AM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Steve - My understanding is that the write-offs were very conservative. CPQ had already taken a big stock price hit and had already given guidance that 2Q was in the tank and 3Q would be transitional, what would be the point in playing games with the writeoffs? I think this guy is smoking dope, I have heard nothing about any SEC investigation. CPQ bought DEC for the service and technology capability, not to play accounting games.

To: Roads End who wrote (33680)	10/2/1998 9:14:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

From the Yahoo Board...... Compaq Sees Profit From DEC This Year Compaq sees profit from DEC this year 06:33 a.m. Oct 02, 1998 Eastern FRANKFURT, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Compaq Computer Corp said on Friday that the integration of Digital Equipment Corp was on track and that its takeover of the company would begin to contribute to earnings by the end of 1998. ''At the time of the acquisition we said we were determined to make Digital accretive by the end of the year,'' Enrico Pesatori, Compaq's senior vice president of marketing, told Reuters in an interview. ''We are executing pretty much to plan,'' he said. ''The December quarter is when we really should start to see the financial impact of the acquisition.'' As of October 1, Pesatori said, Compaq had a unified North American sales force for products from Compaq, Digital and Tandem, a mainframe maker the company acquired in 1997. It has also unified sales groups in some European countries, but the process was taking longer in Germany and France because of labour regulations in those countries. Compaq plans to reduce Digital's workforce in both countries, but French and German laws require it to negotiate layoff plans with unions and employee representatives. ''In other countries the integration of finance and accounting is already done. In Germany and France it will take another six to nine months,'' he said. Compaq has said the Digital units in France and Germany are unprofitable and overstaffed. Digital Germany last year had an operating loss of 65 million marks ($39.85 million) as sales fell 19 percent to 1.17 billion marks, Compaq Germany chief Gerrit Huy told Reuters last week. Compaq wants to cut 820 of 2,500 jobs at Digital Germany, she said. Pesatori declined to detail losses by Digital France or the layoffs planned there. Compaq has said it aimed to cut 17,000 job worldwide, with 4,000 to 5,000 job cuts coming in Europe. Including Digital, it now has a payroll of about 82,000.

To: Roads End who wrote (33680)	10/2/1998 9:15:00 AM
From: .com	Respond to of 97611

Does Herb Greenberg rip everything? All I ever see he do is rip up and criticize companies to show how amusing and clever he can be. His routine gets old very quickly and many can no longer take him seriously. (I wonder why he is no longer w/ the SF paper?) He is a short seller's dream.

To: Roads End who wrote (33680)	10/2/1998 9:17:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

More from Yahoo Board..... Compaq Sees Decades of Life in Digital's Alpha Chip Compaq sees decade of life in Digital's Alpha chip 05:50 a.m. Oct 02, 1998 Eastern FRANKFURT, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Compaq Computer Corp said on Friday that it planned to continue using Digital Equipment Corp's high-powered Alpha processor for another 10 years even as Intel Corp nears the release of its competing Merced chip. ''There has been a total commitment by Compaq to maintain and enchance these (Alpha) capabilities,'' Enrico Pesatori, Compaq's senior vice president of marketing, told Reuters in an interview. ''Our assessment is that Alpha will continue to have a price/performance advantage over Merced probably for the next decade. We are going to continue (offering Alpha systems), probably beyond 2010,'' he said. Compaq still planned to use the Merced chip, which is under development and is expected to be available in 2000. ''We will absolutely jump on it,'' Pesatori said. ''But Merced is not even a prototype today. It is two years away.'' The Merced processor is a critical piece in Intel's strategy to offer high-powered processors that carry much fatter profit margins than the chips it makes for desktop and portable PCs. Intel's growth and profit have stagnated in the past 12 months as competiting chip makers have caught up with the performance of its Pentium II PC chips and forced it to lower prices. Compaq, which acquired Digital earlier this year, is the largest provider of Pentium-based servers. But it recently decided to use Alpha in its Tandem division, which makes mainframes used to run stock markets and other transaction-intensive applications. ''Alpha will be used by Tandem and these are machines with a life of 10 years or more,'' Pesatori said. ''We will have to enhance these products.'' Through a complicated turn of events, Intel manufactures Alpha chips for Compaq, although Compaq handles design and development of new versions of the chip. In 1997, Intel agreed to take over Alpha production to settle a suit in which Digital accused the chip maker of patent infringement.