What people are saying about the merger:

From Compaq:
"The combined companies will provide significant economic value growth for our shareholders."
-Earl Mason, chief financial officer of Compaq

On possible layoffs:
"It will be difficult to justify having two management organizations in place and the Compaq style is more aggressive than the Digital style, so there may be cultural differences. There will certainly be areas where the two organizations can't co-exist." (Reuters)
-Philip Williams, market researcher at Dataquest in London

"There won't be massive layoffs. There's no real need for them." (AP)
-Maryfran Johnson, executive editor of Computerworld

"This is not a gimme for Compaq...there are a lot of issues that need to be resolved." (AP)
-Tom Henkel, a senior analyst with the Gartner Group