Compaq Computer Corporation

American corporation

Compaq Computer Corporation, former American computer manufacturer that started as the first maker of IBM-compatible portable computers and quickly grew into the world’s best-selling personal computer brand during the late 1980s and ’90s. Compaq was acquired by the Hewlett-Packard Company in 2002.

Building IBM PC clones

Compaq was founded in 1982 by Joseph R. (“Rod”) Canion, James M. Harris, and William H. Murto, all former employees of Texas Instruments Incorporated, for the purpose of building a portable computer that could use all of the software and peripheral devices (monitors, printers, modems) created for the IBM Personal Computer (PC). In 1983, its first full year of production and the year Compaq became a publicly traded corporation, the company shipped 53,000 portable PCs for more than $111 million in revenues—at the time the most by any first-year company in U.S. business history. This would not be Compaq’s only business record. It reached the list of Fortune 500 companies (1986) faster than any organization before—less than four years after its founding. It was also the youngest company to reach $1 billion in annual sales (1987).

To accomplish these and other achievements, Compaq first perfected and then transformed the IBM PC clone market. (For many years, personal computers built to the IBM design were known as IBM-compatible, or IBM PC clones.) When IBM introduced its PC in 1981, it built a system with an “open architecture”; that is, the company permitted developers to freely add on hardware and software to improve the features and performance of its PCs. Because IBM also used a microprocessor and a computer operating system that could be acquired from Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corporation, respectively, rival companies were able to design and build clones that were “100 percent compatible”—i.e., personal computers that could use anything designed for IBM’s PCs. Very early in its history, Compaq became known as one of the best producers of IBM compatibles.

Before it could do anything, however, Compaq had to “reverse engineer” technology that was copyrighted by IBM. Unlike traditional engineering, which seeks to invent new ways of doing something, reverse engineering seeks to re-create existing technology as perfectly as possible, including any flaws. In the clone market, most companies focused exclusively on price. Compaq’s engineers took a different approach, concentrating on new features, such as portability and better graphics displays as well as performance—and all at prices comparable to those of IBM’s computers.

Because Compaq’s first products mainly used derivative technologies, the company consciously sought out older engineers from its onset. When Compaq’s first product hit the market in late 1982, the company’s technical staff already averaged 15 years of experience. In contrast to youthful clone start-ups, such as Dell Computer Corporation and Gateway Computer Corporation, Compaq’s veteran staff gave the company an aura of reliability that helped to woo corporate purchases away from IBM.

Another important distinction from other clone vendors was how Compaq sold its computers. While Dell, Gateway, and others used direct marketing—selling via toll-free telephone numbers and later through the Internet—Compaq, like IBM, sold through independent retailers. Unlike IBM, which also sold its products through other methods, Compaq was renowned for never competing with its retail channel of thousands of loyal computer dealers and resellers.

Setting PC standards

In 1987 IBM, under intense pressure in the fast-growing personal computer market, introduced a new computer, the PS/2, with a bus that was incompatible with the AT-bus design of earlier IBM PCs. (A computer bus is a set of conductors that enable information to be transmitted between computer components, such as printers, modems, and monitors.) Despite having made its fortune by being 100 percent IBM-compatible, Compaq decided to continue building computers with the original AT bus. Company executives calculated that the $80 billion already spent by corporations on IBM-compatible technology would make it difficult for even IBM to force users to a new design. They were correct. IBM’s new technology, although praised in the trade press, did not displace its earlier design. In fact, Compaq’s opposition increased its visibility as a leader in PC technology, which it used to line up all of the major PC makers behind a new bus design, called EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture). In 1989, Compaq brought the first EISA system to market. That same year the company eclipsed Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.), as the number two supplier of personal computers behind IBM.

Decline and sale

In 1991 the worldwide economic recession and the Persian Gulf War hurt Compaq’s profits and pummeled its stock price, leading to the ouster of cofounder and chief executive officer Canion. Canion was replaced by Compaq’s long-time European sales and marketing leader, Eckhard Pfeiffer, who had been made chief operating officer and heir apparent after the 1990 retirement of Murto, another cofounder. Under Pfeiffer the company laid off 1,700 employees and aggressively cut prices to shore up market share declines, and it also introduced a variety of lower-priced portable and desktop computers, servers, and printers. The strategy paid off. By 1992 the company was profitable again; by 1993 it was the number one supplier of portable computers in America; and in 1995 it passed IBM to become the biggest seller of PCs worldwide.

Encouraged by the long economic expansion of the 1990s, Pfeiffer decided that Compaq could compete more broadly with IBM, the Hewlett-Packard Company, and Sun Microsystems, Inc., either by developing its own line of mainframe computers (the powerful, albeit extremely expensive, big brothers of the PC) or by buying an existing mainframe manufacturer. Compaq embarked on the second course. In 1997 it purchased Tandem Computers for approximately $3 billion, and the next year it bought Digital Equipment Corporation for $9.6 billion. At the same time, Pfeiffer switched the company’s long-standing retail strategy to a direct-marketing approach in order to withstand growing competitive pressures from Dell and Gateway. Despite these moves, Compaq failed to unseat even the number two computer company, Hewlett-Packard, and it was replaced as the top personal computer maker by Dell. Following a disastrous first financial quarter in 1999, Pfeiffer lost his job. Integrating two giant acquisitions in less than two years had proved difficult; competition from other personal computer makers was cutting profit margins; and Compaq’s institution of direct marketing had decimated its retail distributor network. In July 1999 Michael Capellas, who had joined Compaq in 1998 as its chief information officer, was appointed Compaq’s president and chief executive officer.

In 2001 Compaq began merger talks with Hewlett-Packard, which reached fruition in 2002. Although Compaq is no longer an independent company, the Compaq brand continues as a Hewlett-Packard line of personal computers.

Mark Hall

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