CPQ took DEC a few years ago, and now it is taken by HP, what a sadness to see all these fine Corp disappear one by one.

Karsten M. Self wrote in message <20010903215538.A28821@navel.introspect>... For those who haven't seen this yet, and likely to effect a few of you.

http://archives.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/technology/04DEAL.html

September 4, 2001 Hewlett-Packard to Acquire Compaq in $25 Billion Deal By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and FLOYD NORRIS

Hewlett-Packard will announce today that it is acquiring Compaq Computer for $25 billion in stock in a bold move to grow as the computer business struggles with shrinking sales, executives close to the negotiations said last night.

The merger, if completed, would produce a company with total revenue only slightly less than that of I.B.M., the largest computer company. But both Hewlett-Packard and Compaq have recently seen revenue slide and profit plunge because of a computer industry slowdown, and both have announced job cuts.

The merger of the two computer giants could create a stronger competitor for Sun Microsystems and I.B.M. in the server computer market while putting pressure on I.B.M., Dell and Gateway in the personal computer business. The executives said the merged company would be in a position to compete with I.B.M. across virtually its entire product line.

This does have the interesting side effect of making GNU/Linux the common server OS thread between the merged companies.

Interesting times.

Cheers.

-- Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? There is no K5 cabal http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ http://www.kuro5hin.org Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA! http://www.freesklyarov.org Geek for Hire http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html