MICRON - WHO KNOWS WHAT'S GOING ON?

Well it looks like 35-year-old Steve Appleton is back in control at Micron. That's about the only conclusion one can draw after the actions of the past two weeks.

Earlier this week, Micron released a terse two-paragraph news release stating that Alan Noble had resigned from Micron's board of directors.Apparently, Appleton's ouster was engineered by Noble, which was then overturned by Micron's board and major shareholders, resulting in Appleton's triumphant return and Noble's departure.

Sounds like an attempted coup d'etat gone awry.

As much as I'd personally like to see Micron succeed, I suspect we haven't seen the last weird or unexpected actions out of this com-any.

Packard Bell changes

On Wednesday, Packard Bell, based in Sacramento, Calif., announcedthat: 1) it had entered into strategic relationships with NEC and Groupe Bull; 2) the two firms were going to invest $650 million in Packard Bell; and 3) Packard Bell will be acquiring Zenith Data Systems from Groupe Bull.

Now why should you care about this? Three reasons.

1. Packard Bell is arguably the largest manufacturer in the United States of multimedia PCs for the home market.

Its PCs are found in virtually every computer retailer throughout Utah, and they are generally some of the lowest priced machines on the market for their features.

2. ZDS has a long history in the short life of the PC industry as a market innovator and technology leader. Specifically, ZDS was a leading manufacturer of portable computers for several years in the late '80s and early '90s.

3. Packard Bell has a fairly large service and support facility in Magna that employs between 500 and 1,000 Utahns.

Unfortunately, I can't be more precise than that, because the firm just fired 120 of its Magna employees for failure to "get computer-industry certification."

Anyway, if the deal is consummated, Packard Bell would become a $5.5 billion company and one of the world's largest computer manufacturers.

Support problems

Unfortunately, I can't personally recommend purchasing Packard Bell computers at this time. That is, unless you really know your way around DOS and Windows, or you never buy things that need repairing later.

I speak from personal experience because my company bought a Packard Bell 4225CD last month, a fairly modest 60MHz Pentium PC. Wrong decision!