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Compaq's Alta Vista plan
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January 25, 1999: 11:31 p.m. ET
PC maker may spin off all or part of its search engine, possibly in an IPO
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Compaq Computer Corp. is set to announce Tuesday its Internet strategy for Alta Vista, and it may involve selling all or part of the Web search site to the public.
Compaq (CPQ) said Monday it would hold a press conference Tuesday in New York to discuss its plans for Alta Vista, a search site that is known for delivering extensive - even overwhelming - lists of results in response to queries.
Compaq President and CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer and Rod Schrock, senior vice president of the company's consumer products group, are scheduled to brief reporters and analysts on the strategy.
The company may be planning to spin off all or part of Alta Vista, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday evening on its Web site.
If so, Compaq could be positioning Alta Vista as the next big player in the stock market's "dot-com" frenzy, which has driven Internet-related offerings to unprecedented earnings multiples.
An initial public offering could value AltaVista at $2 billion, according to an analyst cited by the Journal.
Compaq acquired Alta Vista last June as part of its $8.4 billion takeover of Digital Equipment Corp.
The company has been taking steps to develop the kinds of features that would make the Alta Vista site into the kind of Internet "portal" that could attract and hold Web surfers with its range of content.
Last week, for instance, Compaq agreed to pay $220 million for e-commerce site Shopping.com. Shrock said at the time that the combination would offer a key complement to Alta Vista's search capabilities.
"Our intent is to make Alta Vista the leading guide for both information and e-commerce," he said.
But for the most part, Alta Vista has not gone beyond its roots as a search engine, although it offers one of the most comprehensive searching capabilities on the Web.
Compaq shares climbed ½ Monday to close at 46-11/16.
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