Word: compaq
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Accordingly, Dell has withstood a profit squeeze on PCs. Estimates are that last year it posted an operating profit of $268 on each PC it shipped, while Compaq earned only $64 a unit and IBM actually lost $127. Even so, Dell is not relying just on PCs to extend its proud record of being the only company among the FORTUNE 500 that has increased revenues and profits more than 40% in each of the past three years. It is, in fact, somewhat de-emphasizing PCs to put more of a manufacturing and marketing push on such higher-margin products...
...rare that comings and goings among top-level technology executives reach the level of high drama, but they did yesterday when Eckhard Pfeiffer and Earl Mason, the number one and number two at Compaq Computer Corporation, handed in their resignations. The news came a little more than a week after Compaq announced massive shortfalls in revenues and earnings, and Wall Street hammered Compaq's stock accordingly. In a year when personal computers are ever more vital accessories, when even underdog Apple is making a killing, why can't the world's largest PC manufacturer make money...
...Pfeiffer, Compaq's president and chief executive, and Mason, its chief financial officer, will be replaced by a three-man executive committee with Compaq cofounder Benjamin Rosen at its head, but Rosen had little to say to the press about the abrupt transition. "The computer world is in a lot of turmoil," he told Reuters. "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." MORE...
...gets no argument from Dell and Compaq, the two U.S. market-share leaders, which have been slugging it out for more than a decade. They are moving the battle from the saturated consumer market to better-heeled corporate customers. Margins in that market are shriveling as Dell and Compaq bundle heaps of services, software and support to sweeten the deal for finicky clients who have plenty of negotiating leverage. "All brands come with an unbelievable amount of management software, fast CPUs [central processing units] and everything else you need," says Roger Baumann of Affiliated Networks, a small Miami marine-parts...
Dell, as well as Compaq and IBM, is still a powerful brand in an indispensable industry, but then again, Sony is a leading brand in an industry in which pricing and growth rates were once comparable to the PC business: television sets. Today Dell trades at a price/earnings ratio of 75; Sony trades...