Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Compaq Alumni Group Celebrates Company's Role In Computing History

A group of former alumni of Compaq, the computer maker which helped to shape the computer PC industry--and which helped to establish Texas as a high tech center--is looking to celebrate the company's 30th anniversary in Houston next month. The Compaq Alumni Group said it is celebrating the 30th anniversary introduction of Compaq's first product, the Compaq Portable Computer, on November 4th at Minute Maid Park. Compaq, which was founded in 1982 by Rod Canion, Jim Harris, and Bill Murto, helped establish Texas as a high tech center; the firm trumped the conventional wisdom of the time, creating a computing powerhouse which was not based in either Silicon Valley or Boston's Route 128, unlike most technology companies of the time. According to the Texas State Historical Association, the firm helped create a new stream of electronic gold in Texas. Compaq was one of the state's original, venture backed startups, having been funded by Sevin-Rosen Partners' Ben Rosen.