Compaq
Encyclopedia
Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer
company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems
in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard
.
The company was formed by Rod Canion
, Jim Harris and Bill Murto — former Texas Instruments
senior managers. The name "COMPAQ" was derived from "Compatibility and Quality", as at its formation Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compatible
computers.
Prior to its takeover the company was headquartered in northwest unincorporated
Harris County
, Texas
, United States
.
, Jim Harris and Bill Murto, three senior managers from semiconductor manufacturer Texas Instruments
. Each invested $1,000 to form the company. Their first venture capital came from Benjamin M. Rosen
and Sevin Rosen Funds
. The original Compaq PC was first sketched out on a placemat by Ted Papajohn while dining with the founders in a local Houston restaurant, House of Pies.
The company was founded with the temporary name Gateway Technology. The name "COMPAQ" was said to be derived from "Compatibility and Quality" but this explanation was an afterthought. The name was chosen from many suggested by Ogilvy and Mather (Houston office); it being the name least rejected.
Two key marketing executives in Compaq's early years, Jim D'Arezzo and Sparky Sparks, had come from IBM's PC Group
. Other key executives responsible for the company's meteoric growth in the late 80s and early 90s were Ross A. Cooley, another former IBM associate, who served for many years as SVP of GM North America; Michael Swavely, who was the company's chief marketing officer in the early years, and eventually ran the North America organization, later passing along that responsibility to Mr. Cooley, when Swavely retired. In the United States, Brendan A. "Mac" McLoughlin (another long time IBM executive) led the company's field sales organization after starting up the Western U.S. Area of Operations. These gifted executives, along with other key contributors, including Kevin Ellington, Douglas Johns, Steven Flannigan, and Gary Stimac, helped the company with the IBM Corporation in all personal computer sales categories, after many predicted that none could compete with the behemoth.
In November 1982 Compaq announced their first product, the Compaq Portable
, a portable IBM PC compatible
personal computer
. It was released in March 1983 at $2995, considerably more affordable than the Canadian Hyperion
. The Compaq Portable was one of the progenitors of today's laptop
; some called it a "suitcase computer" for its size and the look of its case. It was the second IBM PC compatible, being capable of running all software that would run on an IBM PC
. It was a commercial success, selling 53,000 units in its first year and generating $111 million in sales revenue. The Compaq Portable was the first in the range of the Compaq Portable series
. Compaq was able to market a legal IBM clone because IBM
mostly used "off the shelf" parts for their PC
. Furthermore, Microsoft
had kept the right to license the operating system
to other computer manufacturers. The only part which had to be duplicated was the BIOS
, which Compaq did legally by using clean room reverse engineering
at a cost of $1 million. Phoenix Technologies
would shortly follow their lead, but soon "clone BIOSes" were available from many other companies who reverse engineered IBM's design, then sold their version to the PC clone manufacturers.
microprocessor running at 7.14 MHz. It was considerably faster than an IBM PC
and was, like the Compaq Portable
, also capable of running IBM software. It was Compaq's first non-portable computer and began the Compaq Deskpro
line of computers.
microprocessor, the Compaq Deskpro 386, in 1986, it marked the first CPU change to the PC platform that was not initiated by IBM. An IBM-made 386 machine eventually reached the market seven months later, but by that time Compaq was the 386 supplier of choice and IBM had lost its image of technical leadership.
For the first three months after announcement the Deskpro 386 shipped with Windows/386. This was a version of Windows 2.1 adapted for the 80386 processor. Support for the virtual 8086 mode was added by Compaq engineers.
server was launched in late 1989 - this was a true server product with standard support for a second CPU and RAID
, but also the first product to feature the EISA
bus, designed in reaction to IBM's MCA (MicroChannel Architecture). Prior to developing EISA, Compaq invested significant resources into reverse engineering MCA. Compaq shelved the idea of cloning MCA and formed an alliance with HP and seven others to develop EISA.
. The price war resulting from Compaq's actions ultimately drove numerous competitors, most notably IBM
and Packard Bell
, from this market.
In 1997, Compaq bought Tandem Computers
, known for their NonStop
server line. This acquisition instantly gave Compaq a presence in the higher end business computing market. In 1998, Compaq acquired Digital Equipment Corporation
, the leading company in the previous generation of minicomputer
s during the 1970s and early 1980s. This acquisition made Compaq, at the time, the second largest computer maker in the world in terms of revenue. Unfortunately for the company, CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer
, who engineered both mergers, had little vision for what the combined companies should do, or indeed how the three dramatically different cultures could work as a single entity, and Compaq struggled as a result. Pfeiffer was forced out as CEO in 1999 in a coup led by board chairman Ben Rosen and was succeeded by Michael Capellas
, who had been serving as Compaq's CIO. Capellas was able to restore some of the luster lost in the latter part of the Pfeiffer era, but the company still struggled against lower-cost competitors such as Dell.
During November 1999, Compaq began to work with Microsoft
to create the first in a line of small-scale, web-based computer systems called MSN Companion
s.
In 1998, Compaq also signed new sales and equipment alliance with NaviSite
. Under the pact, Compaq agreed to promote and sell NaviSite Web hosting services. In return, NaviSite took Compaq as a preferred provider for its storage and Intel-based servers.
Compaq's headquarters complex consisted of 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) of land in unincorporated
northwest Harris County, Texas
. The land had 15 office buildings, seven manufacturing buildings, a product conference center, an employee cafeteria, mechanical laboratories, warehouses, and chemical handling facilities.
The merger was approved only after the narrowest of margins, and allegations of vote buying (primarily involving an alleged last-second back-room deal with Deutsche Bank
) haunted the new company.
It was subsequently disclosed that HP had retained Deutsche Bank's investment banking division in January 2002 to assist in the merger. HP had agreed to pay Deutsche Bank $1 million guaranteed, and another $1 million contingent upon approval of the merger. On August 19, 2003, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged Deutsche Bank with failing to disclose a material conflict of interest in its voting of client proxies for the merger and imposed a civil penalty of $750,000. Deutsche Bank consented without admitting or denying the findings.
Before the merger, Compaq's ticker symbol
was CPQ. This was melded with Hewlett-Packard's previous symbol (HWP) to create the current symbol of HPQ.
, leading to its purchase by Verizon. Carly Fiorina
, the Chairman and CEO of HP, added Capellas's responsibilities to her own.
Fiorina helmed HP for nearly three years after Capellas left. HP laid off thousands of former Compaq, DEC, HP, and Tandem employees, its stock price generally declined and profits did not perk up. Though the merger initially made it the number one PC maker, it soon lost the lead and further market share to Dell. In addition, the merging of the stagnant Compaq computer manufacturer with HP's lucrative printing and imaging division was criticized as that overshadowed the latter's profitability. In February 2005, the Board of Directors ousted Fiorina. Former Compaq CEO Capellas was mentioned by some as a potential successor, but several months afterwards, Mark Hurd was hired as CEO.
In late 2005, Dell seemed to be faltering and HPQ took back the #1 sales position. Hurd separated the PC division from the imaging and printing division. HP's PC segment has since been reinvigorated and now generates more revenue than the traditionally more profitable printers.
Most Compaq products have been re-branded with the HP nameplate, such as the company's market leading ProLiant server line, while the Compaq brand remains on only some consumer-oriented and budget products, notably Compaq Presario
PC
s. HP's business computers line was discontinued in favour of the Compaq Evo line, which was rebranded HP Compaq. HP's Jornada PDAs were replaced by Compaq iPAQ PDAs, which were renamed HP iPAQ. All Compaq computers now ship with HP software.
In May 2007, HP announced in a press release a new logo for their Compaq Division to be placed on the new model Compaq Presarios.
In 2008, HP reshuffled its business line notebooks. The "Compaq" name from its "HP Compaq" series was originally used for all of HP's business and budget notebooks. However, the HP EliteBook
line became the top of the business notebook lineup while the HP Compaq B series became its middle business line. As of early 2009, the "HP ProBook
" filled out HP's low end business lineup.
In 2009, HP sold part of Compaq's former headquarters to the Lone Star College System.
from 1994 to 1996, during their previous two seasons as a Premier League club. Compaq sponsored Bradford Bulls
Rugby League
club. Before its merger with HP, it also sponsored the Williams Formula One team
when it was still powered by BMW engines.
equivalent with the IBM PC, and later against other IBM PC Compatible machines.
As a private company and as a division of HP, Compaq primarily competed against other budget-oriented personal computer series from manufacturers including Acer, ASUS
, Lenovo, and Toshiba
.
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems
Market share of leading PC vendors
Because the personal computer is an iconic high tech product the market share of leading PC vendors is watched closely. Market discussion of these devices may include netbooks but do not include media tablets which was dominated by Apple products....
in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
.
The company was formed by Rod Canion
Rod Canion
Joseph Rodney "Rod" Canion is an American computer scientist and businessman. Canion is a co-founder and was a CEO of Compaq Computer Corporation....
, Jim Harris and Bill Murto — former Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
senior managers. The name "COMPAQ" was derived from "Compatibility and Quality", as at its formation Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
computers.
Prior to its takeover the company was headquartered in northwest unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
Harris County
Harris County, Texas
As of the 2010 Census, the population of the county was 4,092,459, White Americans made up 56.6% of Harris County's population; non-Hispanic whites represented 33.0% of the population. Black Americans made up 18.9% of the population. Native Americans made up 0.7% of Harris County's population...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
1980s
Compaq was founded in February 1982 by Rod CanionRod Canion
Joseph Rodney "Rod" Canion is an American computer scientist and businessman. Canion is a co-founder and was a CEO of Compaq Computer Corporation....
, Jim Harris and Bill Murto, three senior managers from semiconductor manufacturer Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
. Each invested $1,000 to form the company. Their first venture capital came from Benjamin M. Rosen
Benjamin M. Rosen
Benjamin "Ben" M. Rosen is the former Chairman and former Acting Chief Executive Officer of Compaq.-Early life and career:...
and Sevin Rosen Funds
Sevin Rosen Funds
Sevin Rosen Funds is a venture capital firm that was established in 1980 by L. J. Sevin and Ben Rosen. SRF was involved in the financing of Citrix, Cypress Semiconductor, Electronic Arts, Lotus Development Corporation, Silicon Graphics, and Vitesse Semiconductor...
. The original Compaq PC was first sketched out on a placemat by Ted Papajohn while dining with the founders in a local Houston restaurant, House of Pies.
The company was founded with the temporary name Gateway Technology. The name "COMPAQ" was said to be derived from "Compatibility and Quality" but this explanation was an afterthought. The name was chosen from many suggested by Ogilvy and Mather (Houston office); it being the name least rejected.
Two key marketing executives in Compaq's early years, Jim D'Arezzo and Sparky Sparks, had come from IBM's PC Group
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
. Other key executives responsible for the company's meteoric growth in the late 80s and early 90s were Ross A. Cooley, another former IBM associate, who served for many years as SVP of GM North America; Michael Swavely, who was the company's chief marketing officer in the early years, and eventually ran the North America organization, later passing along that responsibility to Mr. Cooley, when Swavely retired. In the United States, Brendan A. "Mac" McLoughlin (another long time IBM executive) led the company's field sales organization after starting up the Western U.S. Area of Operations. These gifted executives, along with other key contributors, including Kevin Ellington, Douglas Johns, Steven Flannigan, and Gary Stimac, helped the company with the IBM Corporation in all personal computer sales categories, after many predicted that none could compete with the behemoth.
Compaq Portable
Compaq Portable
The Compaq Portable was the first product in the Compaq portable series to be commercially available under the Compaq Computer Corporation brand . It was the first IBM PC compatible portable computer...
, a portable IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
. It was released in March 1983 at $2995, considerably more affordable than the Canadian Hyperion
Hyperion (computer)
The Hyperion vied with the Compaq Portable to be the first portable IBM PC compatible computer. It was marketed by Infotech Cie of Ottawa, a subsidiary of Bytec Management Corp., who acquired the designer and manufacturer Dynalogic in January 1983...
. The Compaq Portable was one of the progenitors of today's laptop
Laptop
A laptop, also called a notebook, is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device and speakers into a single unit...
; some called it a "suitcase computer" for its size and the look of its case. It was the second IBM PC compatible, being capable of running all software that would run on an IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
. It was a commercial success, selling 53,000 units in its first year and generating $111 million in sales revenue. The Compaq Portable was the first in the range of the Compaq Portable series
Compaq Portable series
Compaq's first computers were portable 'lunchbox' or 'luggable' computers, and as such belong to the Compaq Portable series. These computers measured approximately 1×1 foot on the side, and were approx. 2½ ft wide...
. Compaq was able to market a legal IBM clone because IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
mostly used "off the shelf" parts for their PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
. Furthermore, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
had kept the right to license the operating system
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
to other computer manufacturers. The only part which had to be duplicated was the BIOS
BIOS
In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
, which Compaq did legally by using clean room reverse engineering
Clean room design
Clean room design is the method of copying a design by reverse engineering and then recreating it without infringing any of the copyrights and trade secrets associated with the original design. Clean room design is useful as a defense against copyright and trade secret infringement because it...
at a cost of $1 million. Phoenix Technologies
Phoenix Technologies
Phoenix Technologies Ltd designs, develops and supports core system software for personal computers and other computing devices. Phoenix's products — commonly referred to as BIOS or firmware — support and enable the compatibility, connectivity, security and management of the various components and...
would shortly follow their lead, but soon "clone BIOSes" were available from many other companies who reverse engineered IBM's design, then sold their version to the PC clone manufacturers.
DeskPro
On June 28, 1984 Compaq released the Compaq Deskpro, a 16-bit desktop computer using an Intel 8086Intel 8086
The 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and mid-1978, when it was released. The 8086 gave rise to the x86 architecture of Intel's future processors...
microprocessor running at 7.14 MHz. It was considerably faster than an IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
and was, like the Compaq Portable
Compaq Portable
The Compaq Portable was the first product in the Compaq portable series to be commercially available under the Compaq Computer Corporation brand . It was the first IBM PC compatible portable computer...
, also capable of running IBM software. It was Compaq's first non-portable computer and began the Compaq Deskpro
Compaq Deskpro
The Compaq Deskpro was a line of business-oriented personal computers manufactured by Compaq, discontinued after the merger with Hewlett-Packard...
line of computers.
DeskPro 386
When Compaq introduced the first PC based on Intel's new 80386Intel 80386
The Intel 80386, also known as the i386, or just 386, was a 32-bit microprocessor introduced by Intel in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors and were used as the central processing unit of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time...
microprocessor, the Compaq Deskpro 386, in 1986, it marked the first CPU change to the PC platform that was not initiated by IBM. An IBM-made 386 machine eventually reached the market seven months later, but by that time Compaq was the 386 supplier of choice and IBM had lost its image of technical leadership.
For the first three months after announcement the Deskpro 386 shipped with Windows/386. This was a version of Windows 2.1 adapted for the 80386 processor. Support for the virtual 8086 mode was added by Compaq engineers.
SystemPro
This technical leadership and the rivalry with IBM was emphasized when the SystemproCompaq SystemPro
The SystemPro from Compaq was arguably the first true PC based server. It had a support for Intel's latest 486 chip, a 32-bit bus, RAID disk and dual-processor support well before its main rivals.-Innovative features:...
server was launched in late 1989 - this was a true server product with standard support for a second CPU and RAID
RAID
RAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...
, but also the first product to feature the EISA
Extended Industry Standard Architecture
The Extended Industry Standard Architecture is a bus standard for IBM PC compatible computers...
bus, designed in reaction to IBM's MCA (MicroChannel Architecture). Prior to developing EISA, Compaq invested significant resources into reverse engineering MCA. Compaq shelved the idea of cloning MCA and formed an alliance with HP and seven others to develop EISA.
1990s
At the same time as they began to dominate the server market, in the early 1990s Compaq entered the retail computer market with the Presario, and was one of the first manufacturers in the mid-1990s to market a sub-$1000 PC. In order to maintain the prices it wanted, Compaq became the first top-tier computer manufacturer to utilize CPUs from AMD and CyrixCyrix
Cyrix Corporation was a microprocessor developer that was founded in 1988 in Richardson, Texas as a specialist supplier of high-performance math coprocessors for 286 and 386 microprocessors. The company was founded by former Texas Instruments staff members and had a long but troubled relationship...
. The price war resulting from Compaq's actions ultimately drove numerous competitors, most notably IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Packard Bell
Packard Bell
Packard Bell is a Dutch computer manufacturer and a subsidiary of Acer. The name was previously used by Packard Bell, an American radio manufacturer founded in 1926. In 1986, Israeli investors bought the name for a newly formed personal computer manufacturer. Originally the company produced...
, from this market.
In 1997, Compaq bought Tandem Computers
Tandem Computers
Tandem Computers, Inc. was the dominant manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems for ATM networks, banks, stock exchanges, telephone switching centers, and other similar commercial transaction processing applications requiring maximum uptime and zero data loss. The company was founded in...
, known for their NonStop
NonStop
NonStop can refer to the line of HP Integrity NonStop computers, the line of Tandem NonStop computers that preceded them, or the NonStop OS operating system that is designed for them. NonStop systems are based on an integrated hardware/software stack...
server line. This acquisition instantly gave Compaq a presence in the higher end business computing market. In 1998, Compaq acquired Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
, the leading company in the previous generation of minicomputer
Minicomputer
A minicomputer is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems and the smallest single-user systems...
s during the 1970s and early 1980s. This acquisition made Compaq, at the time, the second largest computer maker in the world in terms of revenue. Unfortunately for the company, CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer
Eckhard Pfeiffer
Eckhard Pfeiffer is a business executive of German ancestry, and a former CEO of Compaq from 1991-1998. He joined Compaq from Texas Instruments, and established operations from scratch in both Europe and Asia...
, who engineered both mergers, had little vision for what the combined companies should do, or indeed how the three dramatically different cultures could work as a single entity, and Compaq struggled as a result. Pfeiffer was forced out as CEO in 1999 in a coup led by board chairman Ben Rosen and was succeeded by Michael Capellas
Michael Capellas
Michael David Capellas is Chief Executive Officer of AcadiaEnterprises, LLC a joint venture of Cisco and EMC with investment from Intel and VMware. He also serves as Chairman of the Virtual Computing Environment coalition...
, who had been serving as Compaq's CIO. Capellas was able to restore some of the luster lost in the latter part of the Pfeiffer era, but the company still struggled against lower-cost competitors such as Dell.
During November 1999, Compaq began to work with Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
to create the first in a line of small-scale, web-based computer systems called MSN Companion
MSN Companion
The MSN Companion was a small-scale personal computer terminal that was designed for easy access to MSN services on the Internet, such as Hotmail, while still being cheap and easy to use. They were intended for use by people with little knowledge of computers or technology, and many included...
s.
In 1998, Compaq also signed new sales and equipment alliance with NaviSite
NaviSite
NaviSite, a Time Warner Cable Company, is a provider of complex hosting, application management and managed cloud services for enterprises, founded in 1997. NaviSite provides a suite of managed services, including Application Services, Enterprise Hosting, and Managed Cloud Services for enterprises...
. Under the pact, Compaq agreed to promote and sell NaviSite Web hosting services. In return, NaviSite took Compaq as a preferred provider for its storage and Intel-based servers.
Compaq's headquarters complex consisted of 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) of land in unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
northwest Harris County, Texas
Harris County, Texas
As of the 2010 Census, the population of the county was 4,092,459, White Americans made up 56.6% of Harris County's population; non-Hispanic whites represented 33.0% of the population. Black Americans made up 18.9% of the population. Native Americans made up 0.7% of Harris County's population...
. The land had 15 office buildings, seven manufacturing buildings, a product conference center, an employee cafeteria, mechanical laboratories, warehouses, and chemical handling facilities.
Merger with HP
In 2002, Compaq engaged in a merger with Hewlett-Packard. Numerous large HP shareholders, including Walter Hewlett, publicly opposed the deal, which resulted in an impassioned public proxy battle between those for and against the deal.The merger was approved only after the narrowest of margins, and allegations of vote buying (primarily involving an alleged last-second back-room deal with Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
) haunted the new company.
It was subsequently disclosed that HP had retained Deutsche Bank's investment banking division in January 2002 to assist in the merger. HP had agreed to pay Deutsche Bank $1 million guaranteed, and another $1 million contingent upon approval of the merger. On August 19, 2003, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged Deutsche Bank with failing to disclose a material conflict of interest in its voting of client proxies for the merger and imposed a civil penalty of $750,000. Deutsche Bank consented without admitting or denying the findings.
Before the merger, Compaq's ticker symbol
Ticker symbol
A stock symbol or ticker symbol is a short abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both. "Ticker symbol" refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker...
was CPQ. This was melded with Hewlett-Packard's previous symbol (HWP) to create the current symbol of HPQ.
Post-Merger
Capellas left the company after serving less than a year as President of HP to become CEO of MCI WorldcomMCI Communications
MCI Communications Corp. was an American telecommunications company that was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the AT&T monopoly of American telephony and ushered in the competitive long-distance telephone industry. It was headquartered in Washington,...
, leading to its purchase by Verizon. Carly Fiorina
Carly Fiorina
Carly Fiorina is an American business executive and a former Republican candidate for the United States Senate representing California. Fiorina served as chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005 and previously was an executive at AT&T and its equipment and technology spinoff,...
, the Chairman and CEO of HP, added Capellas's responsibilities to her own.
Fiorina helmed HP for nearly three years after Capellas left. HP laid off thousands of former Compaq, DEC, HP, and Tandem employees, its stock price generally declined and profits did not perk up. Though the merger initially made it the number one PC maker, it soon lost the lead and further market share to Dell. In addition, the merging of the stagnant Compaq computer manufacturer with HP's lucrative printing and imaging division was criticized as that overshadowed the latter's profitability. In February 2005, the Board of Directors ousted Fiorina. Former Compaq CEO Capellas was mentioned by some as a potential successor, but several months afterwards, Mark Hurd was hired as CEO.
In late 2005, Dell seemed to be faltering and HPQ took back the #1 sales position. Hurd separated the PC division from the imaging and printing division. HP's PC segment has since been reinvigorated and now generates more revenue than the traditionally more profitable printers.
Most Compaq products have been re-branded with the HP nameplate, such as the company's market leading ProLiant server line, while the Compaq brand remains on only some consumer-oriented and budget products, notably Compaq Presario
Compaq Presario
Presario is a series of desktop computers and notebooks from Compaq. The Presario family of computers was launched for the consumer marketplace in September 1993. Although HP has since acquired Compaq, the Presario name was not discontinued due to its marketability. In the mid-1990s, Compaq began...
PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
s. HP's business computers line was discontinued in favour of the Compaq Evo line, which was rebranded HP Compaq. HP's Jornada PDAs were replaced by Compaq iPAQ PDAs, which were renamed HP iPAQ. All Compaq computers now ship with HP software.
In May 2007, HP announced in a press release a new logo for their Compaq Division to be placed on the new model Compaq Presarios.
In 2008, HP reshuffled its business line notebooks. The "Compaq" name from its "HP Compaq" series was originally used for all of HP's business and budget notebooks. However, the HP EliteBook
HP EliteBook
HP EliteBook is a brand of premium business-class notebooks and mobile workstations made by Hewlett-Packard. The EliteBook series, which slots above the lower-end ProBook series, was introduced in August 2008.-Features:...
line became the top of the business notebook lineup while the HP Compaq B series became its middle business line. As of early 2009, the "HP ProBook
HP ProBook
The HP ProBook is a brand of affordable business notebooks made by Hewlett-Packard. The ProBook series are aimed at mainstream business users and are cheaper than the higher-end EliteBook series.-S-Series:...
" filled out HP's low end business lineup.
In 2009, HP sold part of Compaq's former headquarters to the Lone Star College System.
Sponsorship
Compaq sponsored Queens Park Rangers Football ClubQueens Park Rangers F.C.
Queens Park Rangers Football Club is an English professional football club, based in White City, Hammersmith and Fulham, west London. As the 2010-11 Football League Championship champions, they now play in the top tier of English football the Premier League, for the first time in 15 years...
from 1994 to 1996, during their previous two seasons as a Premier League club. Compaq sponsored Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls is a professional rugby league club based in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. They play in the European Super League and are currently joint 10th in the league....
Rugby League
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
club. Before its merger with HP, it also sponsored the Williams Formula One team
WilliamsF1
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, trading as AT&T Williams, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded and run by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head...
when it was still powered by BMW engines.
Competitors
Compaq originally competed directly against IBM, manufacturing computer systemsIBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
equivalent with the IBM PC, and later against other IBM PC Compatible machines.
As a private company and as a division of HP, Compaq primarily competed against other budget-oriented personal computer series from manufacturers including Acer, ASUS
ASUS
ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated is a multinational computer technology and consumer electronics product manufacturer headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, desktops, laptops, monitors, tablet PCs, servers and mobile phones...
, Lenovo, and Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
.
See also
- Compaq Portable seriesCompaq Portable seriesCompaq's first computers were portable 'lunchbox' or 'luggable' computers, and as such belong to the Compaq Portable series. These computers measured approximately 1×1 foot on the side, and were approx. 2½ ft wide...
- List of computer system manufacturers