Eckhard Pfeiffer, CEO of Compaq, breezed into London today and predicted that his company would achieve $50 billion worth of revenues in the year 2000. At the same time, he claimed that Compaq aimed to become the leading Internet company in the world. Pfeiffer said: "Financial analysts are predicting turnover of $43.5 billion in 1999. For 1998, our figures included only six months of Digital revenue. The growth from an annualised level is certainly ambitious but also achievable." He said: "We have developed a new goal for Compaq in the coming years. Our top strategy is Internet leadership. The Internet is fundamentally changing the way all companies do business." Some predictions said that revenues from the Internet will be worth nearly a trillion dollars in a few years time, and currently there are 320 million users online, Pfeiffer said. Compaq's decision to spin off AltaVista as a separate company was taken because it was a completely different kind of business, Pfeiffer said. He gave no indication as to when AltaVista would go public. However, he said the aim was to make it the leading site for both content and for e-commerce. He sought to put to an end speculation that Digital and Tandem products were of less priority than Compaq's other business. He said, to put an end to such speculation once and for all, it was committed to developing both the Alpha architecture and products as well as Tandem products. Pfeiffer only mentioned return on investment (ROI) once in his half an hour speech at the gruesome Landmark Hotel, near Baker Street. ®