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Compaq
This snapshot deals with Compaq, the personal computer
group absorbed by Hewlett-Packard.
It covers -
introduction
[under development]
the enterprise
Compaq
was founded in 1982 by Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill
Murto of Texas Instruments, with an initial investment
of US$1,000 apiece and the classic business plan "sketched
on a paper place mat in a Houston pie shop".
In 1983 Compaq shipped 53,000 PCs and scored an initial
public offering of US$67 million, with first year revenues
of US$111 million. Revenues in its second year were US$329
million. By 1986 it had shipped its 500,000th personal
computer and started to manufacture offshore. Annual sales
by early 1988 had reached US$1.2 billion; by 1991 sales
were over US$1 billion per quarter. In 1993 it left the
printer business. By 1996 annual sales reached US$14 billion.
In 1997 it bought Tandem Computer;
earlier networking acquisitions included Microcom, Networth
and Thomas-Conrad. Revenue for that year was US$24.6 billion.
In 1998 it bought DEC, creating
the second largest computing company, and rights to the
AltaVista domain name. AltaVista proved harder to digest
(or easier to sell than DEC) and was unloaded in 1999
to investor CGMI. In 2002 Compaq merged with Hewlett-Packard.
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