Addressing a group of Italian industrialists last week, Carlo de Benedetti, Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA’s chief executive officer, indicated that Digital Equipment Corp’s acquisition of a 10% equity stake will not resolve all of Olivetti’s problems. A couple of weeks ago at the annual meeting, I said that we would be fighting to break even this year. He went on to say that from the time of that meeting, personal computer prices have fallen by 18%, and they represent around 35% of Olivetti’s revenues. Over the past 12 months, the market has already seen a 50% cut in prices. But on the other hand, you have extraordinary things happening in the industry. Have you ever seen someone pay a competitor because it adopted their technology? Nevertheless, DEC did that with Olivetti because technology today is a commodity that goes looking for markets and distribution channels. Still, he acknowledged that the marketplace remains difficult and that the computer industry will undergo a restructuring. He concluded on a upbeat note, convinced that Olivetti will be …one of the reference points for the new phase…as the demand for information technology grows exponentially. Separately, Olivetti said that the management changes at DEC would not affect its alliance with the minimaker – it is an alliance between companies and not only between people, a spokeswoman said.
