Hounded by press over plans to establish a retail chain this year, Compaq opted to show off its more flattering side, highlighting a development centre based at Queensland's Bond University.
Compaq says it is re-affirming its commitment to the $9.5 million-a-year facility, which harnesses graduate talent from around the country and has played an important role in established and developing technologies.
However, Compaq is also keen to deflect attention from confidential discussions with major partners, including key retailer Harvey Norman, snippets from which have fuelled endless speculation within industry newspapers.
According to a source close to the matter, Compaq and its PR company had previously conducted a crisis meeting in order to deal with press coverage of the company's direct sales plans. Such a meeting has been denied by both Compaq and PR agency Burson-Marsteller.
-Over the last few weeks (Compaq has been briefing) retail and other partners on what our plans are, on rolling out Compaq-branded stores," Compaq spokesperson Anne Eckert said.
-We're not keeping secrets. But we're not in a position to talk. We have commented publicly that by the end of the year there will be stores."
-We are in between a rock and a hard place. For ideas like this, a lot of hard work needs to happen. These things don't happen quickly."
Eckert said the stores will be fully-fledged, -standalone... Compaq-branded stores, with a Compaq sign on the door," and not confined to concept spaces within Harvey Norman outlets, as speculated.
-Harvey Norman spaces for Compaq are a different concept," to the brand's retail plans, Eckert said, although such a concept has played a -part of the negotiation process".
