Conference 7.286::digital

2399.0. "Some Positive Press for a change" by JMPSRV::MICKOL (Ex-Buffalo Bills Fan) Tue Mar 02 1993 14:29

         		"TURNAROUND HOPES FUEL DIGITAL STOCK"
         By John Schneidawind
         USA TODAY

         	After only five months as chief executive, Digital
         Equipment's Bob Palmer is writing the book on how to turn 
         around bloated, confused computer giants: Turn them into 
         lean, mean chipmaking machines.
         	There's some hyperbole in that sentence. But the
         Palmer recipe for Digital Equipment's recovery rests squarely 
         on his processor that will serve as the foundation for 
         Digital's computer line this decade.
         	Palmer is carefully scripting how that recipe is
         circulated. Until recently, he'd only granted interviews to 
         obscure computer trade publications. Wednesday, he phoned and 
         visited with several Wall Street analysts to shed light on 
         Digital's plans.
         	Now those same analysts - many of them burned by
         sticking with Digital too long when its stock was falling
         from a peak of $199 1/2 in 1987 - are beginning to write
         decent reviews. Digital closed Thursday at $48 1/4, up 1 3/8
         and almost 60% since its low in late December. The stock has
         quietly attracted a lot of investors. Here's why:
         	> New management. Palmer's first moves were to clean
         house. By naming a new management team. Palmer impressed Wall
         Street because it showed he was serious about changing
         Digital's corporate culture, which had been dominated for 
         more than 30 years by aging founder Ken Olsen.
         	> Cost Cuts. The USA's second-largest computer maker
         has chopped its payroll almost 20% since 1989. Palmer is
         telling analysts he might chop another 17% the next year or
         two, bringing Digital's total employment worldwide down to 
         85,000 to 90,000 people. He's spent only $500 million of
         about $1.5 billion set aside last fiscal year to cover
         severance payments.
         	> Revamping products. Slowly, Palmer is shifting
         Digital's midrange VAX computers to its Alpha chip, a 
         microprocessor that's based on reduced-instruction-set
         computing, a superfast technology that's responsible for the 
         boom in computer workstations. Computers based on RISC 
         technology also can run more that just one computer maker's
         software - making them more flexible than old Digital
         systems.
         	"I think the recovery is just starting," says Shao
         Wang of Smith Barney, one of several analysts who spoke to
         Palmer. "There's every indication to date that it's moving 
         along very well. I've had it as a speculative buy for the 
         past three months."
         	Could the same sort of turnaround happen at IBM, once
         that computer giant names a CEO to take over from John Akers?
         Possibly. But it would take much longer than it did at
         Digital, says Wang.
         	Palmer must feel pretty good after only five months on
         the job, notes Wang, who expects Digital to post break-even
         results in its fiscal third quarter, which ends in March. But
         such fast turnarounds are "the exception, not the rule, in 
         the computer business."

    
    Re: Break-even
    
    GOD I HOPE SO!
    
    -Ed
    

    
   >> 	  "TURNAROUND HOPES FUEL DIGITAL STOCK"
    
		Your mileage may vary.
    
    The market's up...and we're down.......terriffic! :-(
    

	> Turn them into lean, mean chipmaking machines.
    
    What sort? Silicon, potato (maybe with an e?), cow ....

    Notice that the title was "turnaround hopes fuel Digital stock".
    
    There's little evidence in that article that the attitudes and behavior
    of customers, suppliers, and employees are going to turnaround soon as
    well.
    
    It may be the case here, as in other turnarounds in business, that
    under stress, the interests of shareholders, customers, suppliers, and
    employees are are aligned.

    Well, *I* certainly feel a lot leaner and meaner of late ...  ;^)
    
    Steve

    	That's because with Digital nibbling away at your paycheck and with
    Democrats in office, you can't afford to eat anymore. We'll all be lean
    and hungry soon, and when I'm hungry, I'm mean too.

    .6

    >That's because with Digital nibbling away at your paycheck and with
    >Democrats in office, you can't afford to eat anymore. We'll all be
    >lean and hungry soon, and when I'm hungry, I'm mean too.

    i think i saw an ad for some Burger place having a special going on ,
    like all the burgers you can eat for only $1.99 . 

    so no excuse for any one getting hungry around here even with a very 
    small salary.

    about the mean thing, did you try some of my office-based exercises for
    stress relieve?

    i designed these exercise specially to help cope with the same office 
    stress and its related issues that you alluding to, i think i posted them
    somewhere in this note file sometime ago.

    i hope they help.

    \bye
    \nasser