Acer Completes Gateway Acquisition
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Acer becomes the world's third largest PC vendor; purchase of Packard Bell is still pending.
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IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 7  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gateway, Inc. today introduced the Gateway(R) E-4610 professional desktop, which brings enhanced performance, manageability and security to Gateway's education, government and business customers.
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To keep Lenovo from buying Packard Bell, Acer has acquired 75 percent of parent company PB Holdings.
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Taiwan-based Acer Inc, the world&#039;s fourth largest branded personal computer vendor, has said it is set to more than triple its sales in China this year through its own retail network.
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TAIPEI/SHANGHAI  - Taiwan's Acer Inc will buy Gateway Inc for $710 million to double its U.S. presence and unseat China's Lenovo as the world's No. 3 PC maker, while dealing a blow to its efforts to grow in Europe.
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PC maker Gateway Inc. announced on Sunday that its recent line of laptop computers, desktop computers, and monitors will be available to customers at Micro Center.
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Yahoo said it had signed a multi-year agreement with Acer to develop a co-branded toolbar and start page for all Acer systems. In addition, Yahoo would become the default search engine on all shipped PCs.
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Acer Inc. plans to acquire Gateway Inc. in a deal worth $710 million that Acer says will make it the world's third-largest PC vendor.
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(InfoWorld) - Acer Inc.'s agreement to acquire Gateway Inc. has foiled Lenovo Group Ltd.'s plans to buy PC vendor Packard Bell BV, and could leave Acer owning both Gateway and Packard Bell. On August 7, Lenovo revealed it was in discussions with Packard Bell over a possible acquisition. At the time,Â it looked like Lenovo had beaten Acer, which was also interested in acquiring the company. However,Â Acer's plan to buy Gateway for $710 million, announced Monday, trumps anything Lenovo brings to the table in its negotiations with Packard Bell. In 2006, Gateway signed an agreement with John Hui, Packard Bell's largest shareholder, that gives Gateway the right of first refusal if he decides to sells PB Holding Co. SARL, the parent company of Packard Bell. What that means is that if Packard Bell wants to enter into a final agreement to be purchased, the company has to ask Gateway first, said Y.T. Du, of Citigroup Global Markets Inc., which represented Acer in the negotiations. Gateway can refuse the deal if it wants and enter into purchase talks with Packard Bell, he said. That is exactly what Gateway has done, announcing plans to exercise its right of first refusal at the same time the Acer deal was unveiled. The agreement between Hui and Gateway is rooted inÂ Gateway's 2004 acquisition of eMachines, a PC vendor that Hui founded. When Hui acquired his stake in PB Holding Co., he granted the right of first refusal to Gateway in exchange for the company waving parts of the noncompete agreement that Hui signed when eMachines was sold. Now that Gateway has entered into talks to acquire PB Holding from Hui, Acer could end up owning both Gateway and Packard Bell. While a Packard Bell acquisition would increase Acer's market share in Europe, a deal also means Acer will face having to integrate two companies with its existing operations instead of only one. "Acer is still really strong in Europe," said Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific. Ma worried that Acer's desire to acquire Packard Bell is driven more by a desire to slow Lenovo's growth in Europe, rather than a pressing need to strengthen its own position there. A Lenovo spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment. Â  With additional reporting by Dan Nystedt in Taipei. Â
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(InfoWorld) - People fearing they might miss Gateway's signature black-and-white dairy cow PC boxes after the company is acquired by Acer Inc. have little reason to worry: Acer not only plans to keep the Gateway Inc. brand just the way it is, the Taiwanese company hopes to expand it. "A strong U.S. brand such as Gateway's can be expanded overseas into other markets," said Gianfranco Lanci, president of Acer, in a video feed at the Taipei news conference to announce the deal. Acer's determination to grow the brand should be some relief to American users. Gateway is the fourth biggest PC brand in the U.S., and popular among consumers. But until now, Acer has sold all of its products under its own name. Its strategy going forward is to start using multiple brands in all areas of the world, including the Gateway brand, as well as eMachines and possibly Packard Bell.Â Gateway plans to buy Packard Bell BV, which would ultimately end up as another Acer brand once the Acer-Gateway deal is finalized. Going forward, Acer plans to combine the talents of each company in order to expand product offerings for users. For example, Gateway is strong in desktop monitors, where Acer is weak, so Acer will use some Gateway technology to improve its offerings, said Lanci. The two companies will see where they can share designs and technology to improve their entire desktop and laptop PC line-ups, and expand this product cooperation to Packard Bell if a deal for the company is made. The deal could also mean more PC bargains for users. Becoming larger means Acer can gain better volume discounts when negotiating with parts suppliers. In addition, competition with Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. should remain fierce, and the companies all work hard to keep prices low. Acer agreed to buy Gateway in an all-cash deal valued at US$710 million. The two companies combined will become the world's third largest PC vendor by shipments, at around 20 million desktops and laptops a year, and will transform Acer into a multibrand company. The Acer-Gateway deal still faces regulatory and shareholder scrutiny before being finalized. The boards of directors of both companies have already signed off on the agreement. Acer expects to gain $150 million worth of efficiencies via the Gateway deal, in expanding product lines, cross-selling products, cost cutting and in other ways. The Taiwanese company said Gateway employees would be critical to its success in expanding the brand, but did not say whether it would cut staff. Â
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The cow jumps over the Pacific Acer plans to buy Gateway in a deal worth $710m, which will make Taiwan's computer giant the third-largest computer supplier in the world.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Acer Inc. executed a master stroke in the global war for PC market share withÂ its US$710 million purchase of Gateway Inc., but it may take a while for the market to see the light. Industry researchers view the deal as a long term positive, saying it not only strengthens Acer's ability to challenge Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. for U.S. market share, but that it alsoÂ blocked a potent rival, Lenovo Group Ltd., from gaining ground in Europe. Even Sun-tzu, the ancient Chinese war strategist who wrote "The Art of War," could not have achieved a better move, wrote J.P. Gownder, consumer PC analyst at Forrester Research, in a report. "Acer strategists calculated several moves ahead in the global PC chess game. If the execution is solid, this deal will create a powerful third-place PC competitor that will challenge HP and Dell by 2009, and portends the rise of non-Japanese Asian PC superpowers," he wrote. But in the near term, stock market analysts and investors couldn't have disagreed more. Almost in unison, they criticized the deal as too expensive, too complex and unnecessary for Acer's growth. "The premium paid to Gateway may be too high, and the execution risk of a multiple-brand strategy is clearly the key here," said Vincent Chen, PC industry analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Taipei. The negative comments hurt Acer's stock. The shares fell 10.6 percent this week to end at NT$57.9 (US$1.75) Friday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. But the view of the financial sector may be short sighted. Analysts at industry researchers such as Forrester, IDC and Current Analysis West take a longer-term perspective on the deal. Acer and Gateway may lose some market share immediately following the merger, which is normal, according to Richard Shim, an analyst at IDC. But over the long term the deal will give it the size and clout to gain market share and source components. "The opportunity for Acer in acquiring Gateway is the consumer market segment and particularly the retail channel," he wrote in a report. "The acquisition of Gateway will not necessarily position Acer to be a competitor on the level of Dell and HP but it lays the ground work for Acer to be a more significant player in the largest market in the world [the U.S.] and in the fastest growing segment of that market." Current Analysis West analyst Toni Duboise believes Acer could triple its U.S. market share with the addition of Gateway-branded desktops and notebooks, and eMachines' value PCs. The impact of the deal will take months, even years to ripple through the market, analysts say. Not only did Acer add significantly to its size,Â it also stopped Lenovo from increasing its presence in Europe. Lenovo had been in talks to buy Packard Bell BV, but by picking up Gateway, Acer was able to block the deal. Gateway held the right to refuse any deal to buy Packard Bell and make its own offer due to an older contract between the two companies. Stock market analysts argue that buying Packard Bell is a waste of time for Acer because the company is already strong in Europe. But industry researchers, and Forrester in particular, argue the move staved off a Lenovo ploy that might have hurt Acer in Europe. To be sure, merging companies isn't easy. Acer's ability to join company cultures, keep valuable workers and create product strategies that make sense will be the key to the success of the deal. The company has many recent examples to learn from, most notably HP's purchase of Compaq and the sale of IBM Corp.'s PC division to Lenovo. Rob Enderle, industry analyst at the Enderle Group, warns that Acer needs to make sure it keeps people from Gateway with experience in acquisitions, such as those who worked to make eMachines a part of Gateway after that deal. "This is also an ideal time to take a look at all of the technology both companies are using, both HP and Lenovo waited until late to get rid of a lot of the out-of-date operational technology the companies were using and that hurt both a lot. Particularly in the case of HP and the PC Company side of Lenovo, updating the core operations technology was critical to the success both firms are experiencing now," Enderle said. Time will tell if Acer can execute its merger strategy as well as its battle plan for the global PC market. Â
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InfoWorld - Taiwanese PC vendor Acer Inc. has started selling laptop PCs at popular retailer Best Buy Co. Inc., expanding its presence in the U.S. market.
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(InfoWorld) - Gateway has rejected an offer to sell its retail arm to the California man who founded the company's eMachines line. Lap Shun "John" Hui surprised Gateway's board in August when heÂ offered to buy their retail operationsÂ for a reported $450 million. Gateway issued a statement Friday saying it had decided that the offer was not in the best interest of its shareholders. In 2004, Gateway paid Hui $234 million to acquire his company eMachines, a line of entry-level PCs. Hui used the money to start an office supplies company, and still owns about 5 percent of Gateway's stock. Hui's offer would have stripped Gateway of its agreements with third-party resellers like Best Buy Co., Circuit City Stores, and Wal-Mart Stores. The company sells the rest of its computers through direct sales channels on the telephone and Internet, and through its professional business channel. Gateway, of Irvine, California, is the third-largest PC vendor in the U.S. but has posted financial losses for several quarters. Still, analysts said that breaking the company up would not have made it more competitive.
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Acer Inc.'s shares fell sharply Tuesday, one day after the Taiwanese computer maker said it would acquire Gateway Inc. for $710 million.
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Taiwanese PC vendor Acer has purchased 75 percent of the parent company of European electronics maker Packard Bell for &#8364;31 million ($45.8 million), Acer said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Thursday.The deal effectively seals&#160;Acer&#39;s bid to keep Chinese rival Lenovo from acquiring Packard Bell&#160;and gaining a foothold in Europe, where Acer enjoys strong sales.Acer made the purchase with the help of&#160;Gateway, another company it acquired recently. The U.S. company held the right to counter any offer for Packard Bell if it entered into talks with a third party, which Packard Bell did by speaking with Lenovo. In October,&#160;Gateway made a binding offer to buy shares&#160;from the largest shareholder in PB Holdings Co., Packard Bell&#39;s parent company.That deal went through Wednesday, the Acer statement said. The company purchased 500 common shares of PB Holdings, in addition to 30,000 Class B convertible preferred equity certificates (CPECs) and 7,000 class C CPECs.Stock market analysts have argued that buying Packard Bell is a waste of time for Acer because the company is already strong in Europe. But industry researchers, and Forrester in particular, argue the move staved off a Lenovo ploy that might have hurt Acer in there.Acer bought Gateway last year for $710 million.&#160;
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IRVINE, Calif., June 1  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gateway, Inc. today announced that it's won the leading position in Technology Business Research's (TBR) Corporate IT Buying Behavior and Customer Satisfaction Study for Corporate Desktops in the first quarter of 2007.