I've got a totally different perspective on this one. My wife worked for
Sequent at the time of the merger and still has friends working in the
remains of it at IBM. This was really a case of a botched merger. The
cultures where so opposite and when IBM came in they forced their way of
doing things on the organization. Sequent really never got past the
start up mentality, even thought it was a fairly large company. It was
really hard for a lot of the employees to deal with the change and a lot
of the top technical and sales talent left after the merger. This was
really a boon for a lot of the smaller tech start ups in the area.

-Lane

> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf
> Of Mark Wonsil
> Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 9:42 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Is HP trying to be like IBM or...
>
> Computer World is reporting:
>
http://computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/hardware/server/story/0%2C10801%
> 2C71104%2C00.html?nlid=AM
>
> IBM drops Intel high-end server
> Users of an IBM server line the company acquired through its purchase
of
> Sequent Computer Systems Inc. are being forced to migrate to other
systems
> as a result of IBM's decision to ditch the technology.
> IBM announced the Intel-based 64-processor xSeries 430 server
featuring
> Sequent's Non-Uniform Memory Architecture in March 2001. In March of
this
> year, it posted a notice of plans to withdraw the product, along with
> Sequent's associated Dynix/ptx Unix operating system.
>
> Some Sequent users are clearly agitated.
>
> "IBM's actions have left us with a very bad taste in our mouths for
> anything IBM," said Michael Wojtowicj, manager of systems engineering
at
> Entertainment Partners, a Burbank, Calif.-based company that provides
> production management services in the entertainment industry.
>
> The company has been a Sequent customer since 1989 and uses several
NUMA
> systems and Dynix/ptx to run all of its core applications. Now it's
being
> forced to rewrite all of its applications in Java and C to enable a
> migration to a new platform.
>
> "I think IBM's objective was to first trap customers on this platform
and
> then force them to move to [IBM's] Unix boxes," Wojtowicj said.

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *