Or $25B depending on stock price. Comments? I am not sure what to think. I am not sure what HP is buying. Customers? Name? The San Jose arena?

I have always thought that HP is a better brand of computer, and the name is certainly as strong (though maybe not for PC's). I think Compaq has had the "cutting edge" reputation but I think even that has died away.

HewCom PackPaq will certainly be an interesting company. Just to toss another interesting angle out there...HP and Compaq were the two leading PocketPC manufacturers (HP Jornada and Compaq iPaq). This merger/acquisition has some very interesting possible ramifications in the Handheld computing market.

To address your point, I never thought of HP and Compaq as competitors...HP's stalwart business is printers and Compaq's desktops. True HP makes computers (and calculators and a slew of other stuff) but their domain, the area in which they are unbeatable is in the printer realm.

It definitely will be interesting. We'll just have to see how it unfolds.

Janice

Presumably they think they will be able to sell the same number of computers jointly as they did individually, with economies of scale accomplished by eliminating excess jobs and facilities.

They will operate more efficiently and become more competitive.

And in an environment that continues to worship profits above all other values, this will be the first of many to come.

I think you are right, Fraz. They announced that they will make up to 15,000 layoffs. Ouch.

This is dumber than Compaq buying DEC. They gain nothing beyond market share and years of headaches trying to integrate/cull sales forces.

Besides, what are they going to name the Compaq Center in Houston? The HP Pavilion?

HP would have been better served making a grab for Lexmark and trying to get it past a weak-willed Republican DOC/DOJ.

Blow this one off. There's more important mega-mergers on the horizon:

1) GM selling off Hughes. Not sure if it will go to Newscorp (Murdoch strips it down, uses sat resources for FOX, DirectTV price war vs. AOLTW) or EchoStar (combine DSS/DTV, sat fleets, go for Loral SkyNet next)

2) ATT Broadband bidding war... Disney (golly, Eisner, do you want cable NOW?), AOLTW, Comcast, Microsoft (MSN via cable? MSNTV?), Newscorp (sold Fox Family to Disney to weaken them financially?)... I'm rooting for AOLTW.

3) AOLTW-EBay

4) Disney-Yahoo

David Coursey of zdnet.com calls it a train wreck in slow motion.