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

To: Key West who wrote (59846)	4/25/1999 1:10:00 PM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

gene - You seem to ignore victor's central premise, which is both well known and obvious from CPQ's financials. DELL's business and profits are nearly 100% dependent on the PC business - they had better have a great model there. CPQ's PC business is less than half of revenue and closer to 20% of profits. So all of the fixation on what's wrong with CPQ's PC business, inventory overhang, etc. miss the point. CPQ will not win or lose based on the PC business - they only have to maintain an adequate defensive posture, control costs, and stay in the #1 or #2 position. They are comfortably in #1 today and with reasonable execution can maintain that position. Comparing CPQ on DELL's metrics is only looking at half of CPQ. And a PC centric strategy would be a weak strategy for CPQ to follow. CPQ identified this problem in 1994. DELL's Mike Lambert is well aware of this - he was at CPQ when that problem was identified and the current strategy implemented. DELL has a much bigger exposure to this problem than CPQ has. They are going after a different solution, one which fits the DELL business model. As a DELL shareholder I wish them success and expect that their plan will work. As a CPQ shareholder. I want a plan that works for CPQ - and that plan does not include shifting back to a PC centric growth model which was already weak 5 years ago.