CompaQ

The story of this company has always fascinated me because it was successful despite not having behind a Steve Jobs, nor a Bill Gates, but people with a winning idea and very simple: make a PC better than the IBM PC, so not a trivial clone, but a computer with something more.
In their first year they sold 53,000 laptops or better portable ones.
Among other things, it is the youngest company ever to enter the Fortune 500 ranking.
Founded in 1982 as early as 1987, bill 1 billion dollars, another record.

Compaq will also be the first to produce the PC with 80386, beating IBM itself for seven months.

Compaq becomes one of the leading PC manufacturers in the 90s.
When IBM goes out with the new PS/2 line with proprietary bus, it is Compaq to promote a new open bus (EISA) that is actually implemented with Hewlett-Packard and seven other constructors (then called the gang of nine).

The Compaq is so strong that in 1998 it allows to buy the Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), which despite having twice the number of Compaq's employees, invests less than half.

Simultaneously with the acquisition, however, the problems also begin, the founding members retiring, the market crisis, the arrival of low-cost PCs from China, managerial quarrels, all situations that contribute to making the company difficult.

In 2001, it lost its leadership in the PC sales rankings, and in 2002 Compaq signed a merger agreement with Hewlett-Packard, for a staggering 24.2 billion dollars. In this way the new company reaches the size of IBM.
The brand, however, survives until 2013.

For more details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq

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