“Compaq will take a one-time charge of $50 million to $100
million against fourth-quarter earnings and an additional one-time
charge against first-quarter 2000 earnings of $100 to $150 million,
according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.”
“According to the company’s 10-Q report for the third quarter,
the charges will be taken to cover costs incurred from a previously
announced plan to discontinue offering Windows NT on its Alpha
processor-based servers and workstations. Under the plan, customers
who have purchased an NT/Alpha server or workstation will be given
up to 90 percent credit toward a new Intel/NT system.”
“Customers choosing to remain on Alpha will be offered a
free upgrade to an Open VMS, Tru64 Unix, or Linux system.“