HP Buys Compaq

MaxVlast was the first to report: "The New York Times is reporting that HP is buying Compaq to form the second-largest computer company (after IBM). Wow."

Comments

Re:What they'll call it

[Atrax]

Hewpaq Compardlett

obviously

HP's USB implementation

[Grishnakh]

I use a HP Workstation at work that uses their 64-bit PA-RISC processors. This workstation also uses a USB keyboard and mouse. While it does seem pretty smart to move right to USB for a Unix workstation, the mouse and keyboard they provide are total crap. The keyboard is a $5 special like most companies provide with their cheapest budget computers at Wal-Mart. This is on a $40,000 workstation.

But what's really funny is how they implemented the USB interface. I had my keyboard replaced, and of course they'd only give me another one exactly like it. When the technician came to swap keyboards, he powered down the machine before removing the keyboard. I asked him why he was doing this (this workstation takes forever to boot), since USB is supposed to be hot-swap. He told me that they'd tried that before, and had destroyed several motherboards! So now that IT department has a policy of powering down workstation before changing any peripherals, even if they are supposed to be hot-swap. Apparently HP forgot to implement the hot-swapping part...

Re:Interesting...

[El_Nofx]

Gateway sucks becuase...

1. On March 25th 1999 they changed their entire warranty program and it resulted in the vast majority of computers being purchased with a minimal warranty that forced customers to PAY for service after 90 days / a year if they wanted support. There went 20% of the buisness

2. They went from the company that targeted the enthusiast and gamer, Only placing ads in computer magazines to targeting the first time home user from Stinkwater Alabama. Targeting these people was a mistake in it's self for any computer company. Any computer the first time users buys especially one with windows 98 or Me on it will crash almost hourly and all the problems will not be blamed on faulty ms software and 18 itmes in their startup, it will be blamed on the once good quality computer company. The companies rep's got sick of listening to Joe Bob from Stinkwater yak about his problems and stopped caring. The service went down hill and Gateway lost all it's repeat buisness, which made up about 65% of it's total sales.

3. They never diversified their products.
They tried but it never worked, they offered gimics like the ASTRO (imac rip off) and the profile (laptop on a stand), neither of which went anywhere. They got rid of their best line of computers, the Destination, which offered 36 inch moniters and wireless periferals in '96. They tried to sell servers and workstations but noone bought them because they were crap.

P.s. I just quit working for gateway after 3 1/2 years. best move I ever made

Hp and Compaq will be successful if they can trim the fat and start competing with Dell and IBM. Or else Dell will own the desktop, IBM the server and MS the software

Jerry Ford is a nice guy but he played too much football with his helmet off - LBJ

Re:ROFL

[istartedi]

Hey, this is great. Maybe HP will take a meaningless drop tomorrow. You can buy it, and then cash out when it rises back to its normal level after all the idiots realize it's not HWP. HP, unlike HWP, is not a bad stock to own. P/E 10. Crappy dividend though.