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Chomp Chomp-- Bye, DEC (4/4/98)
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In other Wintel news, it seems like Digital Equipment Corporation may go the way of the dodo, following its recent buyout by big hungry customer Compaq. Originally it looked like Compaq planned to run DEC as a wholly-owned subsidiary, which probably would have allowed DEC to run things pretty much how they wanted to on a day-to-day basis-- think of the relationship between Apple and the erstwhile Claris corporation. However, according to the Boston Globe, now it seems increasingly likely that instead, Compaq will swallow DEC whole.
Compaq originally bought DEC to gain that company's inroads into corporate sales. Following the acquisition, speculation ran rampant about the future of DEC's Alpha processor, which was one of the few desktop competitors of Intel's Pentium line of chips. DEC had previously sold the Alpha to Intel with the condition that Intel continue to make the chip available for a number of years. As a subsidiary, DEC would probably have continued to make its Alpha-based workstation and server products. But if Compaq really integrates DEC instead of running it as a separate company, it's not entirely unlikely that Compaq could just tell Intel not to bother with the Alpha anymore. And some faithful viewers may recall the conspiracy theory about all this we mentioned a few months ago.
Competitive elimination conspiracy theories aside, the absorption of DEC into Compaq would likely result in layoffs of DEC personnel, as well as possibly the forced relocation of some DEC personnel to Compaq's Houston headquarters. Ah, the drama of corporate mergers continues unabated...
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SceneLink (598)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/4/98 episode: April 4, 1998: The Q2 numbers draw nigh, and the world watches and waits to see whether Apple can continue the profit of last quarter. Meanwhile, the FTC has made an example of Dell, by serving up a hefty fine for 1995 vaporware charges, and Digital might just make a hearty meal for Compaq...
Other scenes from that episode: 596: What Color's That Ink? (4/4/98) The day draws ever closer-- in a few weeks, Apple will announce its Q2 financial figures, and we'll all see just how they did in what is historically their worst quarter of the fiscal year. Despite Apple's insistence early on that people should not expect a profit this quarter to follow the surprise black ink from Q1, many analysts seem to be ignoring that advice and are in fact predicting a small profit this quarter... 597: Sins of the Past (4/4/98) Wintel manufacturer Dell made history on Thursday, as they were slapped with the largest fine the Federal Trade Commission has ever ordered against a mail-order company. The $800,000 fine is punishment for a 1995 violation of the Mail Order Rule, when the company sold software that didn't exist...
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