The following announcement appeared on the Reuter's newswire today. As of
today, HP is apparently in the supercomputer business.
 
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PALO ALTO, Sept 21 (Reuter) - Hewlett-Packard Co said it has signed a
definitive agreement to acquire Texas-based Convex Computer Corp for $4.83
per share. Hewlett-Packard said it will swap 1.5 million of its shares for
all 26.7 million Convex shares. The deal is valued at $150 million, which is
the amount of outstanding Convex equity less Hewlett-Packard's current five
percent stake.
 
Following a completion of the deal, Convex will become a wholly-owned unit of
Hewlett-Packard.
 
The two companies have been working together for three and one-half years to
make Convex's high-end supercomputers complementary with Hewlett-Packard's
lower-end systems.
 
Hewlett-Packard also brings computer parts buying power and financial
stability to Convex.  "This is very, very complementary, and we have no
overlap (of products) as far as I know," said Willem Roelandts, general
manager of Hewlett-Packard computer systems division.
 
He said Hewlett-Packard has no plans to restructure Convex or layoff
employees at the current time.  "We really have a lot of work to do on the
whole transition team," Roelandts said. "They will be our high-end computer
company for our our business."
 
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Wirt Atmar