Rumour Department Somewhat wild rumours are circulating on a number of the major bulletin boards that Hewlett Packard will buy Compaq outright for $45 a share. These, unlike the rumours we normally publish, are wild and feverish rumours, commented on in both Silicon Investor and Raging Bull, as well as on other message boards. HP's Carly F would be taking a bit of a chance, wouldn't she? On the other hand, she'd get rid of all of that tiresome competition from The Big Q at a stroke. CPQ is still undervalued, and has been for some time. Over the last months, authorities have become increasingly interested in people posting rumours on bulletin boards so that shares will fly upwards. This pump and dump phenomenon allows people to then collect... Rumours are also circulating, this time in stock markets, that Via will now buy S3 outright. One speculator said: "Via would like to have an integrated graphics solution to compete with Intel's i810 and ALI's TNT 2 Alladin chipset." Via has already a fairly handsome share in S3. ®