NEW YORK: Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive Carly Fiorina on Wednesday said
that its proposed merger with Compaq Computer Corp. will help the development of
the Linux operating system.
In a speech during the annual Linuxworld trade show in New York, Fiorina told
a packed room that "this is a combination that's good for Linux."
The combined company will be stronger in enterprise computing, technology
services, personal computers and printing systems, enabling it to support and
develop better Linux-based solutions for customers, Fiorina said.
"One of the aspects of merging with Compaq that our customers find most
appealing, actually, is that we are both committed to driving adoption of Linux
on the Intel and Itanium platforms," Fiorina said.
Meanwhile, the head of the server group at competitor IBM said that he
believes Linux is fundamentally changing the information technology landscape.
Intel Corp., a microprocessor maker, spent billions of dollars to develop the
Itanium chip, its first foray into 64-bit processors, which are used in
heavy-duty computers.
Linux is an "open source" operating system, meaning that unlike
software such as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating systems, anyone can change
the platform to meet his or her needs.
HP's planned merger with Compaq has come under intense criticism by
investors, including members of the Hewlett and Packard families who say they
intend to vote their 18 percent stake against the planned combination.
Fiorina has been defending the merger since it was announced on Sept. 4 to
investors, customers, and employees. In the past two months, the company has
also launched an ad campaign to discredit the claims made by members of the
Hewlett and Packard families.
Fiorina, who spent most of the 40-minute speech discussing the merits of
Linux and touting the company's customers, which include Amazon.com and film
maker DreamWorks SKG, noted the intense debate with the HP family members on the
merger.
"There are people who find change exciting. Others find it exhausting.
Some find it exhilarating. Others find it intimidating. Others know they will
gain from it. Some fear they will lose from it," she said.
Separately, an International Business Machines Corp. executive said that IT
companies are headed for change as Linux and other open systems, like data
storage management software, become more widely used.
"This whole approach of having open standards that are created by the
community breaks the mold that IT companies have been following for the past
three or four decades," William Zeitler, senior vice president, said in an
interview ahead of the speech.
"What people tried to do was establish a platform or control point, and
having established that control point they would try to erect barriers and
extract margins," he said.
"It is our view that the open movement is going to fundamentally make it
impossible for people to have control points over customers." Instead, he
said, IT companies will be competing on reliability and affordability.
(C) Reuters Limited.