What the HP-Compaq Merger Has Meant To Partners: Geoffrey Lillien

Since the merger, have HP-Compaq sales increased, decreased or stayed the same?
"About the same. The margins are thinner on the Compaq products than the premerger HP products, so that's been a drawback. On the other hand, Compaq StorageWorks has been big for us. The credibility that Compaq brought to HP in the storage market has just been awesome. Our biggest business is HP Unix servers, and that market has slowed somewhat,not because of the merger, per se,but because of the overall economy. Overall, I think they did a good job with the merger. "

Is HP more, or less, competitive in your core businesses?
"The company is more competitive now. The pressure from Dell has hurt them, but HP has responded. The company is much more aggressive on pricing now. I think they've done an excellent job for the most part in settling on the product line."

How has your company been impacted by the merger?
"People have complained about the merger, but I think the addition of Compaq helped assure that partners on both sides are going to be healthy and that the combined company is in a better place..."