Compaq firmly denies exit from networking

Rubbishes US stories

A senior executive at Compaq UK described US press reports of it exiting the networking business as rubbish. Richard Brown, product marketing manager of the networking division at Compaq UK, said: "We have re-organised the business and taken network interface cards (NICs) and modems into the business they belong in." He said NICs will now go to the server division. "This will allow us to focus on the high end business," Brown said. Compaq was now focusing on high end business. He said: "This is to do with DEC-Cabletron arrangement. There's a whole ream of networking products on the site." He added: "The WSJ got it wrong. The networking division of Compaq has a lot of high end products to look after like FDDI and Gigaswitch." Brown said the smaller products were being moved to the enhancements and options division, which also sells monitors. "These are commodity items," said Brown. "This is an advance into the networking market rather than a retreat." ®