[Info-vax] Out with Hurd, in with OpenVMS

[JF Mezei]

Michael Kraemer wrote:

> Maybe, but Olsen wasn't material for the 1990s as well,
> let alone for the 21st century.

I agree with this. Olsen had seup a culture at Digital which no longer
worked. It needed to be changed.

> I don't buy that. Both companies had big losses,
> at the same time, for similar reasons, of similar size
> relative to their revenue.

Read Gerstner's "Elephants can Dance" book. IBM was near bankrupcy when
he got in.

> What was it again that Akers did slash and burn?

Deals were almost ready to be signed to sell off many divisions at IBM
when Gerstner got in. He VERY QUICKLY put those plans on hold and
cancelled them.

> What debts? IBM had two lossy years, but otherwise still deep
> pockets.

IBM was bleeding money very fast and without action was facing bankrupcy
very fast. Read Gerstner's book. It was in far more shape than DEC was
when Palmer got the job.



> In the first place they had a problem with a changing market place
> and external competition.

That was from the Olsen days, refusing to consider the PC as competition.

In my opinion, Palmer quickly realised he was well above his limits and
set out to find a buyer for Digital. Once he found Compaq, it took him 3
years to offload the divisions that Compaq was not interested in before
the merger was announced.

> DEC had way to many employees on their payroll compared to their revenue
> (an Olsen mistake from the 1980s), so no "Casino Analysts" needed here,
> just the usual survival strategy when times are getting tough.

Cutting off the sales force when you need to increase sales isn't the
smartest of ideas.

> If Olsen had left five years earlier, maybe.

No. If Digital had found a proper high calibre CEO (like IBM did), the
problems could have been corrected, and total, Digital would have bought
Compaq, not the other way around.

The Digital Board failed big time in choosing Palmer.

I don't care for HP anymore. But their selection of a CEO will be key to
where they go.