PC Makers Gain As Mainframe Firms Struggle --- Compaq, Sun Microsystems To Post Jump in Net; DEC, Unisys Faltering
Recession talk has cast a pall on the computer industry, but some desktop-computer makers are still shining.</br></br>Analysts say results for the December quarter will illustrate a continued split of the industry, in which many makers of mainframes and minicomputers post smaller gains while makers of personal computers and workstations prosper.</br></br>Digital Equipment Corp., based in Maynard, Mass. -- once a highflier that used its minicomputers to tweak the noses of oldline makers of more expensive mainframes -- is getting some nose-tweaking of its own by the likes of Mountain View, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems Inc. with less expensive, fast workstations. Thus analysts say DEC profit will drop as much as 60% in its fiscal second quarter ending Monday.</br></br>A big part of the problem for DEC and other companies such as Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys Corp., which analysts expect to post a fourth-quarter net loss, is the rapidly growing trend toward open systems -- computers that use standard software such as programs written for Unix operating systems. That hurts makers of proprietary systems -- those that run software written only for them.</br></br>But it's a boon for Sun and large PC makers such as Houston-based Compaq Computer Corp., which, despite recession signs, continue to post strong gains. Analyst Bruce Lupatkin of Hambrecht & Quist Inc. expects Compaq to post a 70% rise in fourth-quarter earnings to $133 million, or $1.55 a share, from the year-earlier $79 million, or 92 cents a share, on a 40% revenue gain to $1.1 billion from $788 million.