Compaq To Spend $100 Million More On Unix

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July 06, 1999 (12:00 AM EDT)

Compaq will pump an extra $100 million into marketing and strategic partnerships for its Tru64 Unix operating system, top executives said in an internal memo.

Joint marketing spending on the operating system with ISVs will increase 400 percent,according to the e-mail.

The memorandum, from the office of the CEO to Compaq employees, said the Houston-based computer maker is taking a four-pronged approach to boosting the platform.

"We are focused on incremental investments that will make Compaq even more competitive," said the memo, co-signed by Compaq chairman Benjamin Rosen and directors Frank Doyle and Robert Ted Enloe. The three make up the interim office of the CEO.

A first step would be to "make sure everyone understands the significance of our commitment. Our objective is to build market confidence in our Tru64 Unix on Alpha strategy and solutions," they said.

Compaq bought the Tru64 and AlphaServer platforms last year when it acquired Digital Equipment. Among the chief criticisms of the company since then is it has been too slow to leverage the acquisitions and work from a common strategy.

"Today, Compaq is behind Sun, [Hewlett-Packard], and [IBM] in overall Unix market share," the memo said. "But we see an opportunity to become one of the top Unix companies by driving for leading positions in selected markets, including business intelligence, Internet and communications, high-performance technical computing, and business applications."

Compaq executives first made their plans public last month, at the Providence, R.I.-based Decus '99 user-group conference. Tim Yeaton, Compaq's vice president for Unix software, said at the time the decision to put extra emphasis on Tru64 and Alpha systems was made following the resignation of Eckhard Pfeiffer as CEO.