Word: compaq
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They come from different parts of the technology universe. Computer powerhouse Hewlett-Packard is an invention factory that has created hundreds of products, things like the handheld calculator, over its 62-year history. Compaq hasn't really invented anything. It sprang to life as an IBM-clone maker in 1982 and shot into the FORTUNE 500 in record time on the basis of its ability to give consumers low-priced machines built with mostly off-the-shelf parts...
...risks of uniting two struggling behemoths were obvious, even to Compaq co-founder Rod Canion, who sketched out the company with a few buddies 19 years ago in a Houston diner. "Now everybody will want to kick Compaq and HP around," he said last week. He was right. But it wasn't Michael Dell or Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy putting the boot in. Wall Street did a good job of that. HP stock plunged 22% by the end of the week, to $18.08, while Compaq sank 14%, to $10.59, wiping more than $3 billion off the value of the proposed...
Fiorina and Compaq CEO Michael Capellas spent the week trying to assure everyone that the math would add up to 3. To get there, she could do worse than to follow in the footsteps of Lou Gerstner. The IBM chief inherited a company torn by turf wars and paralyzed by too many products in the early '90s. Gerstner healed wounds, cut the sprawl and scaled back the low-margin consumer-PC business, focusing instead on supremely stable high-end servers and the lucrative service contracts that came with them. "IBM is proof that it can be turned around," says Tony...
...Compaq or HP seems to be under any illusion about the arduous tasks ahead--blending their cultures, cutting costs ruthlessly (the target is $2.5 billion by 2004) and cracking the services market. Compaq founder Canion, for one, is cautiously optimistic. "These are strong companies being judged in a tough time," he says. At the very least, his baby's new mom has managed to defer judgment for a little while longer...
Manufacturers hoping to boost a sagging PC market are racing to equip computers for wireless networking. "It's considered something of vast importance, given the economic slowdown," says International Data Corp. (IDC) analyst Jason Smolek. Compaq, Gateway and Dell are all selling computers with built-in wireless networking capabilities. IBM launched a top-line Wi-Fi equipped laptop named ThinkPad T23 in late July that offers enhanced security features. Apple, which virtually pioneered wireless home networking when it launched AirPort in 1999, is ahead of the pack. All its computers have been WLAN-ready since then...