Technology Briefing | Services: Computer Sciences Wins Contract From Sears

The Computer Sciences Corporation, the nation's third-largest computer-services company, won a 10-year contract valued at $1.6 billion to run part of Sears, Roebuck's computer systems. Computer Sciences, based in El Segundo, Calif., will install and manage desktop computers, file-storage servers and systems to support Sears's Web sites and data networks, the companies said in separate statements. Sears will save about $40 million a year with the new contract; it had been spending about $200 million a year on the services, a Sears spokesman, Chris Brathwaite, said. As many as 200 of Sears's 1,100 information-technology workers will be hired by Computer Sciences beginning next week. Shares of Sears, based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., fell 13 cents, to $37.87. Computer Sciences fell 41 cents to $43.18.