More heads to roll at the Big Q?

Additional rumours from insiders at Compaq are suggesting that other senior heads are likely to roll during the course of the week. According to our source, who wishes to remain unnamed, there is speculation that senior exec Bill Strecker's job could be threatened as Ben, Frank and Ted continue their purge at Compaq. Enrica Pesatori, who has taken over John Rose's job, was known when he worked at DEC as Dracula, as he wore a cape to work, we are given to understand. Meanwhile, to show willing, our insider has sent us the entire internal memo which Ben, Frank and Ted sent to their staff to explain the staff changes: From: Office of the CEO Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 1999 8:47 AM Subject: Realigning Our Organization To: Compaq Worldwide Team During the past six weeks, we have spent a significant amount of time meeting with customers and employees to get a better understanding of what we need to do to meet their needs and, in turn, to re-ignite Compaq's growth. Today we are taking some significant, initial steps to realign our organization to simplify operations, improve execution of our strategy and sharpen our focus on customers. We are pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Capellas, Currently Compaq's senior vice president for information management, as acting Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company, reporting to the Office of the Chief Executive. Michael has a strong background in both information management and operations. Before joining Compaq in August 1998, he was senior vice president and general manager of Oracle's global energy business. He also spent 18 years with Schlumberger Limited in a variety of management positions. Reporting to Michael will be the Enterprise Computing Group, Personal Computer Products Group, Consumer Products Group, North America, Europe Middle East, and Africa, Global Regions and the Supply Chain Management organization. Services, Corporate Marketing, Finance and Administration, Human Resources and Environment, Legal, Technology and Corporate Development, and AltaVista will continue to report directly to the Office of the Chief Executive. Enrico Pesatori, currently senior vice president and general manager of Global Regions, has been named senior vice president and group general manager of the Enterprise Computing Group. He will continue to act as senior vice president of Corporate Marketing until a successor is named. The Global Regions will report directly to Michael Capellas. John Rose, senior vice president and group general manager of ECG, has resigned. Fred Jones will assume the position of acting chief information officer while Michael Capellas serves as COO. We realize that these are major changes that raise questions about the Roles and responsibilities that each of you has, and that change, for some, is difficult. The process of realignment, however, should not distract us from our core goals and strategies. The objective of these changes is to simplify operations and improve execution. They will put Compaq in a stronger position to achieve enterprise leadership and to maintain our PC leadership. They will help us align our products, services and solutions more effectively behind our NonStop eBusiness strategy. And they will enable us to make an even stronger commitment to our customers. We will provide further detail about the realignment shortly. We ask for your support as we take this bold step together. Ben Frank Ted Meanwhile, a witch hunt is underway at the Big Q for the individuals who leaked us info about a 128-bit Alpha, even though we doubt such a creature exists except in fantasy. ®