There are skunk works and skunk works but few are more elaborate than the one uncovered by the Wall Street Journal by St Paul, Minnesota-based budget personal computer maker Zeos International Inc: in March, the company established Occidental Corp near its own St Paul base, and Occidental has now started advertising 80486 machines 27% cheaper than similar Zeos models; so keen was Zeos to distance itself from the new unit that it created a fictional history for the company, the Journal reports, saying that it had been selling machines under the names of others since the 1980s, but had now decided to go mail order under its own name; an Occidental receptionist even insisted that the company’s president, Dwayne R Derrick was not the same person as the Dwayne R Derrick that joined Zeos as vice-president of special operations in March; Zeos chief executive Gregory Herrick finally conceded that the two Derricks were indeed one and the same person.
