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By Julian Goldsmith, 31 July 1998 17:55

NEWS Bob Palmer will finally step down today as CEO of Digital. The event marks the start of the company's breakdown and assimilation into recent acquirer, Compaq. Palmer's duties will revert to Compaq's CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer. Commentators gave tribute to Palmer's achievements at Digital, but dismissed him as being a future force in the industry. Palmer announced his departure in the middle of last month, just before Digital shareholders met to approve the merger with Compaq. He headed up the company for six years and shares his departure with 2,000 other Compaq/Digital employees in the wake of the takeover. Gopi Bata, analyst at the Yankee Group US, noted the speedy pace by which Digital was being absorbed by Compaq, but refused to see Palmer's departure as a sad day for the company. "This is not the last nail in Digital's coffin, more the first stitch in its birth cradle," he said. Bata was quick to acknowledge Palmer's achievements while he was in the driving seat of Digital. "He made many positive contributions to the welfare of the company, especially in the Alpha and services businesses," he said. "Palmer did well for sticking with Compaq as an acquisition partner. Other CEOs would have let their egos get in the way." However Bata thinks Palmer is unlikely to take another such high profile role in the industry. "Palmer's strengths are in semiconductors and I see him staying in that space," he said. "Although he has a great deal of engineering expertise, he hasn't demonstrated deep marketing depth. He won't be selected for a major CEO post."