friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Stephen J. Friedl) (12/15/90)
A colleague of mine forwarded me a bit from the rumor column from the recent issue if _InfoWorld_, and I found the analysis interesting (mostly because I am patently incapable of doing this kind of thinking). Which brings us to AT&T's play for NCR. I can't remember another hostile takeover in this business, and that's because until now no unwelcome suitor would risk buying a company only to lose all its workers. To make the merger work, AT&T will have to convince the NCR workers to stay on, which means that, like Matsushita with MCA, they can't afford to change anything. So what do they do with the existing AT&T computer business? It's history. Whether the acquisition takes place or not, it seems to me that AT&T chairman Bob Allen is telling his computer people that they are not good enough. Having thus burned his bridges, Allen will pay whatever it takes to get NCR, and even then AT&T may end up with less than it bargained for. Hmmm... Steve -- Stephen J. Friedl, KA8CMY / 3B2-kind-of-guy / Tustin, CA / 3B2-kind-of-guy +1 714 544 6561 / friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US / {uunet,attmail}!mtndew!friedl "If it doesn't core dump, ship it" - Gary W. Keefe, on product development