Pfeiffer Joins IntershopPfeiffer Joins Intershop

Former Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer has surfaced. Pfeiffer, who was forced out of Compaq earlier this year, is joining E-commerce software provider Intershop Communications as chairman. He will be an "active participant" in corporate management, says a spokeswoman for the San Francisco company.

Intershop gets most of its revenue (projected at $45 million this year) from licenses to commerce service providers, but it will announce next week a new enterprise product to compete more directly with companies such as Broadvision--and that's where Pfeiffer's corporate contacts are expected to help.

Like Pfeiffer, Intershop has German roots. It was founded in Germany in 1992, and its stock (with a $2 billion market cap) is only traded on the Frankfurt exchange.