Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer and CFO Earl Mason were suddenly and unceremoniously dumped over the weekend, ten days after the company announced that it would be reporting lower than expected profits for the current quarter. Pfeiffer had referred to the earnings drop as a "hiccup." Compaq is currently the number one PC maker and Pfeiffer is generally credited with taking the company there.
Until new leaders are found, the company will be run by a new Office of the Chief Executive which includes chairman Ben Rosen, and vice chairmen Frank Doyle and Robert Enloe.
"The computer world is in a lot of turmoil," Rosen said of the changes. "The issues are very complex and we felt we really needed a change in the leadership in order to keep our position as the industry leader."
Perhaps, but executives at Dell Computer and Hewlett Packard, two of Compaq's fiercest competitors, say they see no slowdown in sight for their companies
