I refer to Danyll Wills' article in Technology Post on July 8 in which he offered his personal opinion of how Tandem Computers, following its proposed merger with Compaq Computers, was likely to move away from NonStop computing. I'm afraid that Mr Wills has some of his facts wrong and we would like to set the record straight. Tandem is famous for its high-end, mission-critical NonStop computer technology. Our Himalaya servers already handle 90 per cent of the world's stock transactions, 80 per cent of all ATM cash machine transactions, 66 per cent of all credit card validations and two out of three emergency phone calls worldwide. We intend to build this market share. It is this pedigree that makes the potential synergies between Tandem and Compaq so strong. With Compaq holding the number one position in the PC market and Tandem the number one share in the high-availability/fault-tolerant market, the combination provides a 'win-win' scenario for both companies as many senior computer analysts have clearly stated. Tandem has demonstrated for the past six quarters that it is reliably profitable. We are successful in our segment of the market and we see our association with Compaq as a continuation of that success. Following approval of the merger, we will continue to provide the reliability, scalability and infrastructure demanded by our enterprise customers. In addition, Tandem definitely will continue to invest in advancing our fault-tolerant capabilities. Contrary to what Mr Wills might believe, Tandem will be serving its mission-critical customers with NonStop computing technology for a long time to come. PETER CICERI Vice-president and managing director Asia-Pacific Division Tandem Computers International
