It’s Curtains For Digital GlobalSoft

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Mumbai: Digital GlobalSoft, the sole existing entity of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) which used to be the number two IT company in the world in the eighties after IBM, will now cease to exist as a brand as it comes under the Hewlett-Packard fold.

Sources close to the company said that from April, the words ’Digital GlobalSoft’ will be dropped from ‘Digital GlobalSoft, an HP company’ and it will become part of HP. The operations and the functions of the company will remain unchanged. The current employee strength of Digital GlobalSoft stands at 2500.

Company officials could not be reached despite repeated attempts.

DEC entered India in the late eighties through a joint venture with the IT company Hinditron and was named Digital Equipment India Limited. It went on to set up a manufacturing centre in Bangalore which focused on manufacturing Digital’s proprietary machines — VAX (Virtual Address eXtension) — an established line of mid-range server computers and thereon went on to manufacture its RISC/UNIX machines. At one point in time, the company had a manufacturing agreement with Apple for its ‘LC2’ for the domestic market.

The late nineties saw the company being acquired by Compaq. When Compaq acquired DEC globally, it was then touted as the ‘largest acquisition in the history of the computer industry. Compaq had stated that it would pay $9.6 billion in cash and stock for DEC.

Post acquisition, Digital Equipment India Ltd became Digital GlobalSoft Ltd. Realising that Digital’s software division was more profitable than its hardware operations, company officials took a decision to close down the two units. Digital ceased to exist in the hardware market and the company came to be known as Digital GlobalSoft.

Digital stood witness to another takeover. This time Hewlett-Packard acquired Compaq in 2002 and Digital GlobalSoft became an HP company.

In June of 2003, Digital GlobalSoft Limited (Digital) announced that it would combine with HP Services’ India Software Organization (HPS ISO), establishing a services company with HP as a key investor, customer and supporter.

In November of 2003, HP announced that it proposed to purchase the publicly-held shares of its Indian-based subsidiary, Digital GlobalSoft Limited.

Digital GlobalSoft’s delisting comes as Compaq Computer, a wholly-owned subsidiary of HP, has a majority stake of 50.58 per cent in Digital.