| Title: | Honeywell (Bull) Alumni |
| Moderator: | TNPUBS::JONG |
| Created: | Tue Mar 31 1987 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Apr 27 1995 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 57 |
| Total number of notes: | 213 |
The following news item courtesy of John (AUTHOR::) Hayes:
Honeywell, Digital in pact
New York - Digital Equipment Corp. gained a major customer when
Honeywell Inc. said it would resell Digital VAX computers as part of
its offerings for customers in process industries. Until now, Honeywell
had based its offerings only on the DPS-6 computers made by Honeywell
Bull Inc. The Digital computers would be used by Honeywell's customers
to create computer simulations of processes, the companies said.
Process industries include those in which there is a continuous flow of
material, such as oil refining, chemicals, and pulp and paper.
(source: The Boston Globe, Tuesday morning, September 15, 1987, pg 51)
*****
My comment: Last summer, when my boss was trying to convince me to
stay, he said Honeywell had an agreement with Honeywell Bull to buy
(80? 85? 90?) percent of its computers from Honeywell Bull. It sounds
to me as if either this represents the remaining ten to twenty percent,
or the agreement was only for a limited time. In a competitive
situation, it's entirely possible VAXen can beat DPS-6s. Without the
Honeywell market, I think Honeywell Bull is finished.
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15.1 | It was inevitable | ULTRA::KINDEL | Bill Kindel @ LTN2 | Thu Sep 17 1987 10:34 | 26 |
For those who weren't aware of such, the Control Systems side has long
favored VAXen over the DPS 6. Except for being directed to "buy
Honeywell", they would have built many of their products on VAXen.
(... and probably have gotten a better price!)
The fact that the VAX has such a huge library of engineering-oriented
software has made it very popular in CS, also. Departments were
forever writing justifications which said that they HAD to have a VAX
to do some specific thing because the application they HAD to use
didn't run on Multics or DPS 6. I'm sure that some of those claims
were seriously exaggerated, but it's hard to refute them so there are
already a bunch of VAXen installed.
Now that Honeywell Bull is a different company, most of the constraints
are off. We can fully expect that new Honeywell products will be
developed and/or built upon VAXen. Considering Honeywell's
conservative bent (an asset, for the most part), how can they choose to
pay more for a system which comes with a much higher set of risks and
smaller application library than the VAX?
The sad fact is that every other manufacturer of minicomputer-based
products will be faced with the same decision. If Honeywell Bull
attempts to "buy the business" with aggressive pricing, they'll attract
the fly-by-night operators rather than the heavy-hitters. All in all,
I'm afraid this is just proof that the company we all joined is truly
OUT of the computer business. :^(
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| 15.2 | Bye, Honey It is BULL-N now (soon to be BULL?) | ASDS::KRISHNASWAMY | Old NETMAN:: New ASDS::, DTN 276-8690 | Mon May 06 1991 09:28 | 10 |
From "Notes from the UnderLan" :
Groupe Bull Buys Honeywell Stake
Groupe Bull has purchased Honeywell, Inc.'s remaining 12.8%
interest in Bull HN Information Systems, giving Groupe Bull an
85% stake in Bull HN. NEC Corp owns the remaining 15%. The
purchase has been a long-planned move. The EN article has much
historical information - NFD. (CW,4/22/91,p85; EN,4/22/91,p4)
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| 15.3 | could really be Jull-o!!. | DECWET::PENNEY | DEL ENT <file> sets you free! | Mon May 06 1991 12:44 | 3 |
And .....
rumor has it in financial circles that NEC wants it all from the
French.
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