Compaq's Quest for Power

Back in 1982, a brash newcomer called Compaq Computer sprang up to clone IBM personal computers. Last week Compaq became a virtual clone of IBM, the company. The computer maker will pay some $9 billion for Digital Equipment, a dented dynamo of a company based in Framingham, Mass., in a deal that will complete the transformation of Compaq into a global provider of everything from handheld computers to the monster machines that power corporate networks and the Internet. The buyout creates a behemoth with $37 billion in revenues that trails only the $78 billion IBM. "In the early '80s, if we...