Compaq
The Once Mighty Compaq
The Texas-based Compaq brand has been a successful US computer brand from the last 20 years of the 20th century until it was bought and absorbed into the HP brand. It was formed by former Texas Instrument managers, Rod Canon, Jim Harris and Bill Murto with the name standing for Compatibility and Quality, thus Compaq.
A Storied Past
Compaq started out making IBM PC compatible machines and became one of the largest PC makers in the world by the end of the 20th century. Before it got merged with HP in 2002, losing much of its identity, Compaq had been on a buying binge that saw them acquiring Tandem Computers, known for its high end servers with continuous non-stop availability in 1997 which was followed the year after with Digital Equipment, a leading minicomputer maker of the 70s and 80s.
Unfortunately, the then Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer who had engineered the buyouts failed to synergize its corporate acquisitions to give the Compaq name any lasting edge in its markets. As a result, it went into financial distress that made it easy for HP to acquire the company and merge its successful product line with its own. The merging was plagued with controversy as Compaq stockholders offered resistance while alluding to some improprieties in the deal. But it eventually went through and Compaq suffered laying off thousand of employees worldwide with HP only retaining some and assuming the helm.
Compaq under HP
HP effectively assumed manufacturing and marketing control of Compaq, Tandem and DEC product lines in addition to its own, making it the largest PC maker in the world despite declining stocks, dwindling profits and finally losing out to Dell as the world’s leading PC maker at that time. But HP eventually regained its stellar prestige in the market with a slew of products that capitalized on its acquisitions and by 2005, HP is back to number one.
Some Compaq products like the ProLiant line of servers that have been quite successful, were re-branded with the HP name. The Compaq name remains on a few consumer PCs like the Presario line. HP’s business-targeted PC line was later discontinued to favour the Compaq Evo PC line that was re-branded HP Compaq. The Jornada PDA line from HP was replaced by the superior Compaq iPAQ PDAs which were eventually re-branded as HP iPAQ.
