If the HP-EDS marriage lives up to its on-paper promise, the new company could offer outsourcing customers their first real alternative to IBM Global Services. "IBM, for the first time, is facing a global competitor that will be able to match it for both infrastructure and service capabilities in most, if not all, categories and geographies," says Robinson.

However, an integrated HP-EDS may be bad news for customers who used both companies as competing service providers. "Those customers will have to migrate over time to one or more other suppliers," says Lowell Williams, EquaTerra's head of human resources advisory services, "to ensure this new 800-pound gorilla plays nice."

-Stephanie Overby

Web Founder Aims for Truly Global Internet

, the inventor of the World Wide Web, plans to launch a new foundation focused on extending the capabilities of the Web and bringing the Internet to all the world's people.