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In 2001, Hewlett-Packard announced it would purchase Compaq for $25 billion. A new documentary about the Texas-based startup, called “Silicon Cowboys,” chronicles its rise and fall. The work, which premiered at this year’s SXSW, looks at the group of friends that decided to build a portable computer after ultimately opting out of opening up a chain of Mexican restaurants. They instead built an empire that challenged IBM to “become the largest computer company in the world.” One of its co-founders and the former CEO, Rod Canion, joined us to talk about the company’s history, and its near biblical struggles. “It’s certainly David versus Goliath,” Canion said. “I used to think of it as an Indiana Jones thing, with one impossible hurdle after another.”
An apparent insurmountable obstacle for Restoration Hardware: the horror of items that are on sale. To get away from something that could dilute the brand’s high-end image, the furniture company is pushing a paid-for membership. Those who buy the $100-a-year membership will get discounts on all their purchases, Marketplace’s Adriene Hill reported.
There are some out there who don’t mind selling items for cheap, though. In a new survey, about 25 percent of workers say they would “be happy to sell their work passwords, some for just the price of a dinner,” according to Quartz. When broken down by country, 27 percent of people in the U.S. would sell their passwords, followed by 20 percent in both Germany and U.K. Australia and the Netherlands were the least likely to do so, at 12 percent each.
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