ALLIANCE—Latino Business Group Forms Ties With PC Maker

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Compaq Computer Corp. announced last week that it has formed an alliance with the Latin Business Association, the L.A.-based non-profit that represents the business interests of about 440,000 Latino businesses in Southern California.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Compaq said it has agreed to provide the LBA with computer hardware and technology, including servers, PCs and iPAQ Pocket PCs.

In exchange, the LBA will recognize Compaq as its “preferred technology partner” through joint marketing and promotion campaigns.

The Houston-based computer maker, which has regional operations in El Segundo, Irvine and Ontario, is hoping the alliance will help it tap the small- to medium-sized business market that the LBA serves, according to Compaq area director David Fusco.

“We will be their provider of technology and team with them to offer business solutions to the Latino business community,” Fusco said. “The small- and medium-business segment is an area we’d like to penetrate further.”

Los Angeles is home to 54,000 Latino-owned businesses, an increase of more than 200 percent from nine years ago. Only 6 percent of Latino small-business owners have an e-commerce strategy, compared with 35 percent of non-Latino business owners, according to Compaq.

“Compaq is a very familiar name in the Latino community, and technology has become a centerpiece initiative for the LBA,” said Ruth Lopez Williams, chairwoman of the board of the LBA.

With its large and diverse economy, L.A. has become a kind of proving ground for Compaq, which has long-term alliances here with businesses ranging from the Walt Disney Co. to the Tech Coast Corp.

“It’s a very diverse marketplace, not dominated by any one single business,” Fusco said. “L.A. is made up of many small- to medium-sized businesses, as opposed to Fortune 500 companies, and Compaq wants to take advantage of that uniqueness.”

Compaq’s national strategy has been to build a computer company that is, like L.A., broad and diversified. It sells everything from PCs to multimillion-dollar supercomputers to consumer electronics gadgets like MP3 players, unlike its main competitor, Dell Computer, which focuses on and excels in the PC market.

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