Conference 7.286::digital

    Dan Dorfman, one of the Business Writer's for USA Today, indicated that
    purchasing stock in a Company is a vote of confidence.  I have no
    confidence  so I don't buy Digital Stock anymore, I purchase something
    that is a little more secure e.g., property in the Outer Islands of
    Hawaii.  Therefore, I would not be interested in Ownership of Digital
    as I doubt if I would have any more influence/control or be more highly
    valued as an employee.  Employees in Digital are something they HAVE TO
    HAVE and when the numbers look bad you're just another grouping of TFSO 
    candidates to be replace by another VP.

According to the SECAPL Quote server (http://qs.secapl.com/cgi-bin/qs)
our total Market Capitalization (the market value of our outstanding
common stock) is $6,579,000,000.

How many employees do we have now?  60,000?  That's $109,650 per employee,
or less than 2000 shares at today's closing price of 55 7/8.

For the company to be 51% Employee Owned, each employee would only need
to own $55,921.50, less than 1000 shares.

That's what it would take, folks.  If you want it, you know how to do
your part.

/john

    
    
    ditto .1 
    
    I don't think that most folks are still here out of any sense of
    loyalty....
    I think it's more like riding that dead horse cause you've had it for
    so long that you just don't want to have to give it up, and you can't
    accept the fact that it really is dead....(but it eventually starts to
    stink so bad that you have to get off and walk away...!!!!)
    
    I got out of DEC stock for the same reasons as stated in .1.  You
    invest where you have confidence. 'nuff said. 

  That number (required investment per employee) hasn't actually
  chaged that much over time. I remember qute a few years ago,
  when the idea was bandied about in here before, that the number
  was somewhere in the $30,000 range. I wouldn't have bought in
  then and I wouldn't buy in now.

  One problem 'way back when was no one could agree on a consensus
  of what needed to be done to fix the place up. Is there any more
  consensus now? I don't think so. You might help buy the place
  out only to find *YOUR* job eliminated by the new management! :-(

                                   Atlant

    I'd go to Per Diem and eliminate all the receipt counters and TMS.

    Here's another reason I won't buy the Company - No Marketing.  We're
    shipping CPU's in 300 MHz range but this article suggest that we have
    vaporware.  However, we have some volumes while HP is only seed units. 
    Just wait until they reach volume and you'll see what they'll do to our
    market share.  Also, the article listed below indicates they're the
    fastest group UNIX vendor.  Today I heard that HP stock is going to
    split.  I'be been here for more than 13 years and I've seen DEC split
    once, however, HP has split a number of times, if my memory is correct.
    
    Anyone seen HP Professional magazine?  Great, dedicated magazine to HP
    business.  The same publisher produces DEC Professional or Digital Age
    as it's called now.  A magazine that never positioned Digital in a very
    favorable image.
    
BENCHMARK UPDATE

In April, HP issued the following updated benchmark for its 64-bit PA-8000 
CPU.  HP has been shipping to ISVs since January and plans to ship systems 
this month. 
                  BENCHMARK UPDATE 

             CPU/SPEED		SPECint95	SPECfp95
 HP 1890MHz PA RISC 		   11.8		20.2
 Digital 400MHz Alpha 21164	   11.0**	14.0**
 MIPS 200MHz R10000		    8.9		12.50
 Sun 167MHz UltraSPARC		    5.6		 9.1
 IBM 133MHz PowerPC 620		    5.6*	 5.6*


 * Source: Microprocessor Report 
** Vendor Estimates -- systems not shipping

EMPOWERED ENGINEERING IS A BIG HIT FOR HP
                                                                           
HP now ranks as the industry's fastest-growing UNIX-based technical-systems 
vendor in calendar year 1995, according to Dataquest (Mountain View, Calif.) 
report. HP recorded the highest overall revenue growth rate of all leading 
vendors and also demonstrated the fastest revenue growth across four hotly 
contested technical markets: mechanical computer-aided 
design/manufacturing/engineering (MCAD/CAM/CAE); geographic information 
systems/mapping (GIS); electronic design automation and architecture( EDA), 
and engineering and construction (EAC). At 28.9 percent, HP's revenue growth 
rate (combined for all four markets) was nearly twice that of SGI (16.5%) 
more than twice that of IBM (13.4%), and nearly three times that of Sun 
(10.9%). "HP's 1995 revenue growth rate demonstrates the widespread 
acceptance of HP's graphics workstations and servers in all technical markets 
reflects," according to Sharon Tan, a Dataquest senior industry analyst. 
However, Tan cautions that the data is still preliminary and is subject to 
change before its officially published later this year. But the early results
do show HP to be the clear winner. 

It's the culmination of a two year plus focus on "Empowered Engineering," 
says Janet Muto, an HP technical marketing manger. "We saw the benefit in 
the early 90's of helping customers to solve problems, rather than just 
delivering new technologies. And not just to the engineers, but to all kinds 
of users like IT managers, she points out. For example, she says that SGI 
goes after the sizzle in animation, referring to SGI's dominant position in 
the 3D animation market and Sun is aimed just at the technical user. 
According to Muto, HP's compound annual growth rate in the 3D market has 
been 70 percent plus since 1991. 

HP has also acknowledged the importance of their ISV partners in helping the 
company achieve at this level. For example, HP has garnered several major 
customer wins in the aerospace and automotive sectors, since March 1995 when 
IBM/Dassault Systems (CITY, STATE) selected HP 9000 workstations as the first 
non-IBM platform port for CATIA, its well-respected CAD/CAM software 
application. Cadence Design Systems also selected the HP 9000 as the 
development platform for Cadence's Interleaved Native Compiled-code
Architecture and a new native compiled code Verilog-based simulator, 
NC-Veril. Muto is quick to point, however, "we have close working 
relationships with 10 to 15 other vendors. 
    

    loyalty is a two-way street...most corporate america today has shown
    that they do not value employee loyalty as an assett...why should
    employees value loyalty to the company as an assett if it ain't
    reciprocal???
    
    k

    I wonder if the folks at netscape feel this way.... hmmm

    maybe so, maybe no, I would imagine that if netscape started
    participating in headcount bulimia the way some companies have been,
    that employee loyalty and morale would drop to rock bottom as well.  
    
    

    I just think management doesn't get it. By these enormous blood-letting
    layoffs with future layoffs always hanging over your head, no career
    advancement opportunities, lesser wages in relation to before....., 
    of course they are going to lose loyalty. Management and everyone else
    is in it for the buck, but what they don't realize is that they are
    losing money by destroying the morale and loyalty of the employees.
    People just aren't giving it the extra personal time, dedication,
    quality and so on because we are not happy, don't see a future, and
    in many cases overworked due to making up for those that have been
    canned. Too bad, short-sightedness is ultimately going to destroy
    a company that was really great.