c


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

c
c
 c  


   Subsidiary of HP

 
PDA and Computer Hardware

  February 1982

 
Worldwide
 

 c
,
Founder



,
  Founder
  
 
Founder

c
Last Chief executive officer

Presario desktops notebooks, iPAQ, ProLiant

  
Servers and Telecommunications equipment
and software.
   
Hewlett-Packard


 
www.compaq.com

c
c
 c  
 is an American personal computer company founded in 1982.
Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world,[1] Compaq existed as an
independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for $25 billion by Hewlett-
Packard.[2][3]

The company was formed by Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto ² former Texas
Instruments senior managers. The name "COMPAQ" was derived from "c
atibility nd
uality"[4], as at its formation Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compatible
computers.[5][6]

Prior to its takeover the company was headquartered in northwest unincorporated Harris County,
Texas, United States.[7]

c 
[hide]

2Y 1 History
‘Y 1.1 1980s
Y 1.1.1 Compaq Portable
Y 1.1.2 Deskpro
Y 1.1.3 Deskpro 386
Y 1.1.4 Systempro
‘Y 1.2 1990s
2Y 2 Merger with HP
‘Y 2.1 Post merger
2Y 3 Sponsorship
2Y 4 Competitors
2Y 5 See also
2Y 6 References
2Y 7 External links

m
!
 
m
!"#$%
Early Compaq logo.

Compaq was founded in February 1982 by Rod Canion, 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 Ben Rosen and Sevin Rosen Funds. The
original Compaq PC was first sketched out on a placemat by the founders while dining in a local
Houston restaurant, House of Pies.[8]

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 IBMer, 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.

m
!c
 

Compaq Portable

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 for $1 million.[9][10][11] Phoenix
Technologies were the first to follow their lead, but soon "clone BIOSes" were available from
many other companies who reversed engineered IBM's design, then sold their version to the PC
clone manufacturers.

m
!&' 

On June 28, 1984 Compaq released the Compaq Deskpro, a 16-bit desktop computer using an
Intel 8086 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. This was the first of the
Compaq Deskpro line of computers.

m
!&' ($)

When Compaq introduced the first PC based on Intel's new 80386 microprocessor, the Compaq
Deskpro 386, in 1986[12], they began a period of increasing performance leadership over IBM,
who were not yet using this processor. An IBM 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.

m
!* 
 

This technical leadership and the rivalry with IBM was emphasized when the Systempro 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).

m
!"##%

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 Cyrix. The price
war resulting from Compaq's actions ultimately drove numerous competitors, most notably IBM
and Packard Bell, from this market[O

].

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 minicomputers 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 Companions.[13]

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 of land in unincorporated northwest Harris

County, Texas. The land had fifteen office buildings, seven manufacturing buildings, a product
conference center, an employee cafeteria, mechanical laboratories, warehouses, and chemical
handling facilities.[14][15]

m
! + ,

This section 



- 
-

.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged
and removed. Î



An HP Compaq computer and an HP Deskjet 5740 printer owned by the Houston Independent
School District

In 2001, 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.[16]

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.[O

]

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.[17]

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.[O

]

m
! 
 + 

Former Compaq headquarters, now the Hewlett-Packard United States offices

Capellas left the company after serving less than a year as President of HP to become CEO of
MCI Worldcom, leading it to be purchased by Verizon. Carly Fiorina, the Chairman and CEO of
HP, added Capellas's responsibilities to her own.[O

]

Fiorina helmed HP for nearly three years after Capellas left. HP laid off thousands of former
Compaq, DEC, HP, and Tandem employees,[18][19] 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 stagnant Compaq 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, HPQ seemed to find its feet under the new leadership of Mark Hurd. At this same
time 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[O

].

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 products, notably Compaq Presario PCs. 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.[O

]
In May 2007, HP in a press release announced a new logo for their Compaq Division to be
placed on the new model Compaq Presarios.[20]

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.[21] As of early 2009, the "HP ProBook" filled out HP's low end
business lineup.[22]

In 2009, HP sold part of Compaq's former headquarters to the Lone Star College System. [23]

m
!*  

Compaq sponsored Queens Park Rangers Football Club from 1994 to 1996, during their most
recent 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.

m
!c

 
HP primarily competes against computer manufacturers including Dell, Acer, Lenovo and
Toshiba. Originally the company competed against IBM, making affordable IBM PC
compatibles often cheaper and faster than the IBM alternative. Lenovo, which purchased IBM's
personal computer business in 2005, is a new competitor, especially in China where it was
founded.

MARKET SHARE OF COMPAQ IN INDIA

˜
 



   

 

  
 



 

 

  





˜ !   
 

"
 






  

   

 #$%
&&' ##!(
&&'


)

#*+



 
, 

 

 
 ˜ 


 ˜ -.


  


  
 

  

 
 

/


- , ,
-

˜  .

 

%'' .


  
%''' 

  
 *(0
'''$''!

  1 


  $2 
 

 
*      1(
 
$' $




YYYY
Y
Y

Y
Y
Y  YY  YYY

Y
Y

YY YY
  
Y Y  YY

Y
Y
Y

YY YY
!"#Y$" YY
Y
Y
Y

YY YY
!"#Y$"%& YY
Y
Y
Y

YY YY
!"#Y$" YY
Y
Y
Y

YY YY
!%'%Y$"( YY
Y
Y
Y

YY YY
!%'Y$"& YY
Y
Y
Y

YY YY
!%#Y)'&# YY
Y
Y
Y

YY YY
*  
*+"YY
Y
Y
Y

YY YY
*  
* "'YY

Y
Y
Y

YY YY
*  
* "'"YY

Y
Y
Y

YY YY
  
!"&'#$
 ,

-YY

Y
Y
Y

YY YY
* .'*""YY
Y
Y Y

Y Y

Y
Y

Y
Y Y
Y