The cost of laying off 20,000 people could come back to haunt Eckhard Pfeiffer as it emerged the value of his shares is over $200,000,000. The figure would have been double that but unfortunately the share price halved on reports of poor profitability on results it will post Wednesday. After Pfeiffer master-minded the takeover of Digital, over 20,000 people were given their pink slips and P45s in Europe just before and just after Christmas. If Pfeiffer decides to dole out the money his shares are worth, each redundant person could collect $1,000, or so. Will he do it? The world awaits. In the two weeks before Eckhard and CFO Earl Mason were removed from the centre of things, barrages of class actions assailed the big Q. ® See also Deep schisms mar Compaq 64-bit plans