COMPAQ BUYS DIGITAL
By Adnews Staff
Compaq Computer Corp. of Houston has bought U.S.-based Digital Equipment Corp. in a deal valued at $9.6 billion. Compaq made the move to help reach its goal of becoming one of the top three global information technology companies. For Digital, the agreement "gives us the scale and resources to make continued investments in our key technologies and services, Digital chairman Robert Palmer says in a release. Under the deal, Digital becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Compaq. In Canada, advertising for Compaq is done by Ammirati & Puris/Lintas of Toronto. DDB Canada of Toronto handles Canadian advertising for Digital. Canadian officials from Compaq were unavailable to comment on how advertising will work. Last year, Compaq bought U.S.-based Tandem Computers.
Separately, Compaq has added three new computers to its line up, one in the Deskpro 4000 series and two in the 6000 PC family, that feature Intel Corp.'s 333 MHz processor. The new Deskpro model is up to 10 times faster than 300 MHz Pentium processors and features a 3.2 gigabyte hard drive, as well as 32 MB of SDRAM, upgradeable to 384 MB. The machines will be available worldwide.