HP and Compaq: EMC will not be beat

Bigger isn't always better...

Current storage market leader EMC claims it is not scared of losing top spot to HP in the wake of its takeover of Compaq. However, Compaq and HP are both heavyweight players in the storage market and their combined storage revenue, as predicted by analysts at Gartner, will surpass EMC's. But EMC said it should be fine if HP and Compaq's past performance is anything to go by. Nigel Ghent, EMEA marketing manager of EMC, said it's not guaranteed two average performers will make a single good one: "Joining up two large companies is difficult in terms of product integration and does not guarantee success. HP for instance is not especially good at integrating technology as only a few years ago it switched from EMC to Hitachi which was not exactly smooth." Robin Burke, principal storage analyst at Gartner Dataquest, added: "The company's current combined figures would put it ahead of EMC in theory. However, the integration process will slow them down in terms of bringing products to the market which might give its competitors an opportunity to race ahead with product releases."