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Compaq Names New CEO
Prop Head writes "Compaq today named Michael D. Capellas as their new CEO in a hastily called press conference. He was recruited in as the CIO in 1998 and was installed as COO after they tossed Piffer earlier this year. Could this be the end of Compaq's troubles? Time will tell. Click here to see what their P.R. types have to say about it. "
Someone care to elaborate on Compaq's troubles that may now be ending? Sorry, I'm ignorant.
Who cares?
Many people do. This kind of posting is some of the stuff that I look for on /. If you don't keep up with the business end of things you might as well stay out of the game. I know a lot of ppl don't believe this and they don't play the game - but the game is still played and it still changes without your input and WILL pass you by if you don't keep your eyes open.
:).
Also (IMHO), the next time you want to buy a real server - they will still be there. Compaq has has been a big player in making our "computer" world what it is. They put out a lot of amazing eq and I don't want to see them go away. This is a very important move for them and I hope that it is the right one.
I believe what they are doing as a company is very very cool. That could explain why I have purchased about 200k worth of servers off of them in the last "budget" year. And why my last 2 home pc's were Compaqs (running several diff os's - and very nicely thank you
"Never try and teach a pig to sing, it's a waste of time and it annoys the pig." Robert A. Heinlein
As a former DEC consultant, I'm very pleased that Compaq went this way as opposed to the rumors about bringing Palmer back to run the place. Palmer was a great axe man but I never had much confidence in him actually being able to run more than an auction. The rule of thumb in the late 80s/early 90s was if you showed a profit, you were sold. Of course this wasn't always good news for the likes of Quantum, Intel and Cabletron which were on the receiving end.
Hi.
One of the reasons that I read slashdot is
that technology/business news ration is very high.
Other news site seems to thing that technology news
is just business news for the high tech industry!
So, this is not the type of news I like to see slashdot.
Knud
Hey, I love slashdot. :-)
I were just giving some feedback so that it will stay great.
Last I checked there were no filter named
No bussins news.
if compaq develops some great new technology I would
like to know it.
Who runnes the company, how mush the stock cost, e.t.c.
Is just not my interes.
I have 2 websites and I would love some critique.
http://sunsite.auc.dk/FreakTech/
http://www.aeiwi.com/
What's TLA?
No, I really am serious.
jeez, if you don't like the articles posted, then don't read the site.
or use the user preferences to filter out stories you don't like..
is it really worth the time to write out a comment speaking your displeasure, as opposed to just moving on to another article, or website?
get a clue, or run your own website (i can't wait to criticize it.)
-herb
your mom!
No, the time to buy is *after* the hideous 2nd
quarter results come out on 7/28, operating losses
plus restructuring costs are going to total at
least 700 Million - don't buy before such an announcement. What is Compaq - a seller of crappy
PC's with no support, or an Enterprise Vendor, better figure it out soon - time is wasting.
TLA == _T_hree _L_etter _A_cronym
The time to buy is now... Unless your like me and have no cash :)
if anyone can do it, it's got to be him.
..met him at a SAP tradeshow back in May in Europe. We SEs were still building the booth. A guy in a dark suit appeared beside the booth. All he said, was: "Hi, I'm Mike"... took us a while to figure out he was the CIO. we were pretty impressed: normally these guys visit the booth for like 10 minutes, and you can't even see them because they are completely immersed in other suits protecting them from the real world.
I'm currently working out at Compaq's main facility in Houston, and I can tell you that Mike is *not* a guy in the trenches. Throughout Compaq there is a sheilding that is done of the top executives from reality, due to the perception of a "shoot the messenger" problem there. Bad news is swept under the rug, schedules are made while quality is sacrificed, you name it. Comments about Capellas from people who know are along the lines of "really great at selling himself and being charming--he could probably run for Congress or something. But he lives in a dreamworld when it comes to technology."
The real problem around Compaq is that they are in meeting hell. They have a total diffusion of responsibility and authority. No one person decides anything--it is all done by committee. They have meetings to organize meetings. This has led to complacency and lowest-common-denominator thinking. It was eye-opening to read about the new Mac iBook (on slashdot I think), and how they measure their inventory in HOURS, not weeks like Compaq. They totally discount delivery in different colors as either "stupid" or as impossible given channel distribution and inventory problems. They just have not grokked at all the fact that the industry is reinventing itself around website config-on-the-fly, around dirt-cheap or free PCs, and around the fact that PCs for most people (millions if not billions of consumers) are powerful enough. They keep thinking that technology churn and ever-hotter boxes will somehow continue to capture their historical market shares, when in fact that market (quickly turning into simply the server and Linux geek market) is dwindling rapidly.
Around Compaq (based on my poll of TWO people and my own opinion) this appointment of Capellas to CEO is seen as a sign that things really are not fundamentally going to change anytime soon.
Time will tell though, as it always does.
Boy does that all sound familiar. That was certainly part of the DEC spiral. Look at the comments about trying to sell VMS as open standards. The meeting comments especially. Nice to see that DEC lives on...
What troubles are compaq having?
Compaq has profit. Its a slump, it happens to any big company.
The board directors were running the show until they got a new CEO.
CEO? CIO? COO?
Are nerds supposed to know these acronyms?
Wow, so Compaq got a new CEO!!! Hardly news for nerds, *or* stuff that matters. If I wanted this crap I'd be reading Forbes.
SlashDot is quickly becoming a waste of my time (well actually, it always was, but at least I used to enjoy the experience!).
As far as I know, the previous Compaq honcho's name was Eckhard Pfeiffer, not Piffer.
Peace, brothas.
Paul.