1977    Digital Equipment Corporation releases OpenVMS V1.0.

1978    The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.

1980    Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation.

1998    Compaq Computer pays $9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition.