BBS水木清华站∶精华区

发信人: Bob (Dinosaur), 信区: CompExpress
标题: Compaq斥资96亿美元收购DEC(美联社英文稿)
发信站: BBS 水木清华站 (Tue Jan 27 04:53:14 1998)

January 26, 1998

Compaq To Buy Digital for $9.6B

Filed at 10:28 a.m. EST

By The Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) -- Compaq Computer Corp. has agreed to buy
Digital Equipment Corp. for $9.6 billion in a deal that
creates a new computer powerhouse, from selling consumer
PCs to networked business machines.

Compaq already is the world's biggest maker of PCs but
has said it wants to be among the three largest computer
manufacturers overall by the turn of the century by
expanding into powerful business machines.

Digital is a major maker of the big computers that run
networks of smaller machines. But after pioneering the
computer network as an alternative to the mainframe,
Digital missed the explosion in demand for desktop
computers this past decade and has slipped badly in
recent years.

Compaq said it planned to pay $4.8 billion in cash and
issue 150 million shares of common stock in the deal
announced today.

By selling a full range of business computers, Compaq
will be able to strengthen its presence in the lucrative
market of helping businesses set up, run and service
their computer networks. Digital has a staff of 23,000
and revenue of $6 billion in the services business.

``Now we are rounding out the entire spectrum in
corporate enterprise computing,'' Compaq chief executive
Eckhard Pfeiffer said in a telephone interview this
morning.

Pfeiffer said the companies would disclose details of
cost savings or layoffs when the deal is completed in
three to four months. Digital will retain its name.
Robert Palmer, Digital's chairman and chief executive
officer, will remain at the combined company, Pfeiffer
said.

The Digital sale marks the final dismantling of a
formerly dominant player in business computing. Once the
world's third largest computer maker, Digital has lost
billions of dollars and shed half its workforce since
its heyday in the late-1980s.

Digital last fall sold its network-equipment unit, which
supplies technology for routing information between
computers, for $430 million to Cabletron Systems Inc.
Digital also sold its Alpha microchip manufacturing
operations to Intel Corp. for $1.5 billion in an
agreement that also settled Digital's copyright
infringement suit against Intel.

``When we look back on Bob Palmer's legacy, it's going
to be the dismantling of Digital,'' said Maryfran
Johnson, executive editor of ComputerWorld magazine.
``He's essentially sold the company off in bits and
pieces.''

Based in Houston, Compaq ranks fifth in the overall
computer industry today with sales of $24.6 billion last
year.

Maynard-based Digital had $13.1 billion in revenues last
year.

Only last year, Compaq bought Tandem Computers in a $3
billion stock deal that doubled its sales force.

Under the deal with Compaq, Digital shareholders would
get $30 a share in cash and 0.945 Compaq shares for each
Digital share.

Digital will become a wholly owned subsidiary as part of
the transaction. The deal is subject to approval by
shareholders and government anti-trust regulators.

Compaq stock was down 6.7 percent in early trading,
falling $2.12 1/2 to $29.62 1/2 on the New York Stock
Exchange. Digital stock was up 23.5 percent, rising
$10.68 3/4 to $56.12 1/2.

(AP)

--
※ 来源:·BBS 水木清华站 bbs.net.tsinghua.edu.cn·[FROM: 159.226.23.7]