Compaq had decent laptops until the acquisition too.
when HP acquired Compaq, the products were not merged to create a new PC. the HP line was dropped and all HP employees connected to that line (mostly in Roseville CA) were fired on the spot. The Compaq employees remained in tack, never leaving their offices in Huston. For years within HP legacy HP employees were refereed to as "blue" and legacy Compaq employees were "red." The entire PC line was considered "red" there was no purple.
HP artificially maintained two brands, because stores like Best Buy, wanted the perception of competition their shelves, the top three being Compaq, HP and Sony.