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To: 16yearcycle who wrote (51200)	4/18/1999 8:19:00 PM
From: Jenne	Respond to of 164684

INTERVIEW- Acting execs said Compaq moved too slow By Eric Auchard NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) - Compaq Computer Corp.'s (CPQ - news) bid to expand beyond its position as the world's No. 1 personal computer maker remains sound, even if the execution of its strategy has fallen short, its chairman said on Sunday. Benjamin Rosen, Compaq's new acting chief executive, said in a phone interview that the Houston-based company had been too slow under its previous management in capitalizing on market opportunities in the PC business and beyond. Rosen was interviewed shortly after the announcement that Eckhard Pfeiffer, Compaq's president and chief executive, and Earl Mason, chief financial officer, had resigned and an office of the chief executive and a new acting CFO had been named. The resignations come nine days after the Houston-based company warned that its first-quarter results would fall well short of Wall Street's previously lowered expectations. ''The computer world is in a lot of turmoil,'' Rosen told Reuters in a phone interview Sunday. ''The issues are very complex and we felt we really needed a change in the leadership in order to keep our position as the industry leader.'' While departing chief executive Pfeiffer had said the first-quarter shortfall reflected brutal competitive pressures throughout the industry, Rosen said the disappointment reflected the Houston-based company's own failed execution. ''In fairness, a lot of it was our fault,'' Rosen said of the disappointing first-quarter results, which are due to be reported on Wednesday. Compaq warned that earnings will fall more than 50 percent below Wall Street's prior expectations. ''I don't think we executed well,'' he said of the company's business game-plan for the first-quarter. ''I hope that in subsequent periods we can improve on that performance.'' ''We believe that the strategies that we have in place are fundamentally sound,'' Rosen said. In recent years, Compaq has been seeking to transform itself into a broad-based supplier, not just of personal computers, but of larger business computers and the consulting services required to tie to together complex computer systems. In the interview, Rosen appeared to blame Compaq's departing senior management for failing to live up to the company's tradition of product innovation and seizing new market opportunities. ''We would like to focus on first is to accelerated the speed of our decision making,'' Rosen said. ''In some way we have been too slow.. we want to try and get a head of the curve,'' he said of plans to attack growing market segments. Also participating in the interview were Frank Doyle and Robert Ted Enloe, the other members besides Rosen of the three-man executive team who are to run the company until a new CEO is found. Both are directors and vice chairmen of Compaq. Doyle was a long-time top marketing executive at General Electric Co. (GE - news) and served as a member of GE's office of the chief executive from 1992 to 1996, he said. He joined the Compaq board following the company's $8.4 billion acquisition last year of Digital Equipment Corp., a supplier of large business computer systems and consulting services. Enloe has a background in the financial services industry and is the second longest serving Compaq director, after Rosen, having joined the board in 1986. Rosen said the terms of Pfeiffer's departure from the company were spelled out in his original employment contract signed when he took over as the company's president and chief executive in the early 1990s. Pfeiffer replaced Rod Canon, the company's co-founder and original chief executive, who was forced out by Rosen and the Compaq board in October 1991 after Compaq's strategy of being the leading provider of premium PCs ran aground amidst competition from lower cost computer makers. Mason, who was reached at home, told Reuters that his job search had been underway well before the company became aware that it would report a first quarter shortfall. ''Oh yes, you don't get a CEO job overnight,'' he said in response to a reporter's question. ''I'm very happy.'' He declined to comment on his new position until after the company makes an announcement later Sunday or overnight.