Conference 7.286::digital

    This is an old rumor. The fact is that companies have approached
    Digital asking to buy certain portions of the Storage business. By law,
    Digital has a fiduciary responsibility to talk to each and everyone of
    those prospective buyers. We are a public company with shareholders and
    we have to investigate any proposal which can affect those
    shareholders. I believe I heard we have done this and turned the offers
    down.

    
    In order to show a profit in Q1 I would not dismiss ANY OPTIONS.
    
    	IMHO,
    		fred deady

    Storage is one of the more successful compoents, particularly the OEM
    offerings. Selling it off, would be a shot in the foot...
    
    q
    

    Companies routinely sell off profitable divisions. Look at Kodak trying
    to sell its very profitable Eastman Chemical Division. They couldn't
    sell it, so it has/will be spun off into an independent company.
    Personally I don't see how it makes sense, but I'm no accountant....
    
    Robert
    

Well, based on information I have from a trusted senior individual who was
recently TFSO'ed from the Storage organization (and went to work for a
competitor), Digital WAS soliciting the sale of part or all of the storage
business. Nothing would surprise me at this stage of the game.

The competitor opted not to make an offer.

Jim

>>Well, based on information I have from a trusted senior individual who was
>>recently TFSO'ed from the Storage organization (and went to work for a
>>competitor), Digital WAS soliciting the sale of part or all of the storage
>>business. Nothing would surprise me at this stage of the game.

This could be a telling factor as to why the "senior" individual is now
an ex-Digit. His statement is, in fact, false. Digital received 7
unsolicited bids for storage as a result of the StorageWorks announcements.
All offers have been rejected after the required investigations.

From:	NAME: Charles Christ @MLO           
	FUNC: Mass Storage Systems            
	TEL: (508)493-2747                    <CHRIST.CHARLES AT PNDVUEA1 at MLMAIL at MLO>
To:     See Below

    
    
    PLEASE INSURE THAT THIS MEMO IS COMMUNICATED TO ALL STORAGE 
    EMPLOYEES AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!
    
    Digital recently was approached by several companies interested 
    in discussing the possibility of acquiring certain assets in our 
    mass storage operations.  We explored these options, but after 
    careful review and consideration, we decided that it is not in 
    the best interests of the company and its shareholders to pursue 
    these discussions.  We believe that Digital's mass storage 
    operations have significant growth potential.  Given the 
    company's technological leadership, the strength and customer 
    orientation of our people and the marketplace momentum we have 
    generated in recent years, we will continue to develop the 
    business.
    
    Receiving these unsolicited inquiries is a testimony to the hard 
    work that you have done over the past two years to transform what 
    is becoming a world-class, competitive storage business.  This is 
    an intensely competitive business, and there is much hard work 
    ahead of us.  I appreciate all of your efforts and the 
    contribution each of you has made to our success.
    
    Cordially,
    
    Charlie
    
    

To Distribution List:

    

re: .7 Charlie Christ's memo

	do you have a date to go with that memo?

I had heard that 'we' wanted to sell all of storage, not just some
parts.  I also heard that no one came up with the bucks necessary
for the whole thing - did anyone hear how much we were asking for
storage (excluding controllers)?

	Joe

	What does it all matter? It's not being sold..

						mike

From:   MLMAIL::MLMAIL::MRGATE::"PNDVUEA1::CHRIST.CHARLES"  3-AUG-1993 
12:14:32
To:     @Distribution_List
CC:
Subj:   STORAGE BUSINESS UNIT STATUS                                           

Joe,

Charlie's memo clearly stated "unsolicited", which means we were not
asking any price for the business. The offers came out of the blue.

John I.

John,
	I don't believe the inquiries came with a price.  I assume 7 'groups'
expressed interest in buying parts of storage, and inquired about price,
and when the price was determined, offers were withdrawn.  I'm interested
in the price - just because these offers are withdrawn doesn't mean there
couldn't be more, nor does it mean that the price couldn't be lowered
in the future...  I'm just trying to find out at what price Digital is willing
to part with storage...

	Joe

 Worldwide News                                              LIVE WIRE
 
 Message regarding Digital's mass storage ...                Date: 03-Aug-1993
 
                                                              Screen  1 of 3
          Message regarding Digital's mass storage operations

 Following is the text of a message to employees from Charlie Christ,
 Vice President, Storage Systems Business.
 ********************************************************************

 To all Storage Business Unit employees:

 Digital recently was approached by several companies interested in
 discussing the possibility of acquiring certain assets in our mass
 storage operations.  We explored these options, but after careful
 review and consideration, we decided that it is not in the best
 interests of the company and its shareholders to pursue these
 discussions.  We believe that Digital's mass storage operations have
 significant growth potential.  Given the company's technological
 leadership, the strength and customer orientation of our people, and
 the marketplace momentum we have generated in recent years, we will
 continue to develop the business.

 Receiving these unsolicited inquiries is a testimony to the hard work
 that you have done over the past two years to transform what is
 becoming a world-class, competitive storage business.  This is an
 intensely competitive business, and there is much hard work ahead of
 us.  I appreciate all of your efforts and the contribution each of you
 has made to our success.


 Sincerely,

 Charlie Christ

  

    Instead of -selling- Storage Systems I wonder if it would be possible
    to spin off a DEC subsidiary to Wall Street.  With the current pace of
    new offerings we might be able to get a lot of cash that way.  And if
    DEC maintained a majority interest (say 60%) of the shares, it's not
    likely the subsidiary would take anti-parent steps.
    
    Basically we would be giving investors a stake in "DEC-Stor" in return
    for anticipated future dividends.  DEC gets money AND retains control,
    though not absolute control.  It's worth a thought, anyhow.
    
      John

    	Charlie Christ posted a memo in VTX indicating that Digital had
    received several unsolicited requests for sale of "certain assets" of
    our mass storage operations. Can anyone provide any further details,
    such as who the requestors were and what they were interested in
    purchasing?
    	Also, as indicated by Charlie, this indicates validation of our
    expertise in this area. What specifically are we manufacturing in this
    area and are we *really* competitive price-wise. The message speaks for
    itself that we are technologically competitive. Any comments?

	I'm not sure, but I'd guess it was our 3.5" disk business,
	though there might other interesting bits and pieces.  These
	are good products, though not quite the best.  If you buy
	them before we put the DIGITAL label on them, they probably
	are price-competitive.  Even at about $1.60/MB the RZ28
	isn't too bad, though I hear that $1/MB is a good benchmark.

    ...and another rumor log to throw on the fire.....
    
    Storage to be sold on June 17 and will be called Evermore?
    
    Anyone care to elaborate?
    
    Jt

    How many people work in the Storage division?

    Will Digital be renamed 'Nevermore'?
    
    Lee

    I heard that it wasn't all of storage- just the disks. It will be
    called something like AVIS. It affects approximately 2000 current
    employees. The rest of storage stays with us.
    
    My rumor log on the fire.

    Storage OEM announced last week that they would be a separate division
    with its own logo and will be independent from cooperate
    standards. The rest of us here in Storage aren't sure if they're talking 
    about all of Storage or just the OEM marketing group.

    As far as any part of Storage being sold, nothing has been announced or
    even hinted at.

    Jim

    Business Week again (June 13th issue) had a blurb "Clear the DEC"
    in which "suitors are eyeing operations that account for $3b in
    revenues - among them Digital's manegement consulting and systems
    integration, disk storage, and software units".
    
    Also: "analysts expect DEC will have to take $1b in new restructuring
    charges this quarter - enough to exhaust its current $930 million
    cash cushion".  kb

    
    
    	It's true, Storage was just sold - to the SBU...
    
    ed