Compaq CEO heralds mergers

NEW ORLEANS--Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer attempted to allay any fears corporate customers may have concerning his company's $9.6 billion merger with Digital Equipment and how it would relate to that company's older product line.

Speaking here at the CA World '98 conference, Pfeiffer said, "We recognize that you will continue to demand high-performance systems running Unix and Open VMS. Our goal is to deliver the broadest range of solutions in the industry."

Compaq's leader reassured a half-filled hall of devotees to Computer Associates software that little would change once the merger with Digital is finalized.

He said Compaq would push Digital's brand of Unix as a standard. "We believe it has the opportunity to evolve as a very strong, market-leading Unix," Pfeiffer noted.

Compaq would retain its commitment to the Santa Cruz Operation's version of Unix as a high-volume operating system for low-end needs, Pfeiffer said.

Pfeiffer also took the opportunity to tout the strengths of his massive computing firm to attendees, capitalizing on his time in front of the corporate crowd to highlight the benefits of Compaq's recent acquisitions of Digital and Tandem Computers.

Earlier in the day, CA and Compaq grew cozier, adding new elements to a long-running partnership. The result will be that CA's bare-bones Unicenter TNG Framework management software will be packaged with every existing and new Compaq server system. The bundling arrangement will include optimized software code so Compaq's Insight Manager software can snap into CA's.

CA will also add two pieces of agent software for Compaq's Tandem line of Himalaya server systems, to be released this summer.

Compaq's CEO certainly didn't draw the crowd as did Microsoft CEO Bill Gates or the conference's host, chairman, and CEO Charles Wang. The executive's keynote was sparsely attended.