Dell could go indirect with Acer buy - analyst
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Model 2.0 Michael Dell could prove that "Dell 2.0" is more than a marketing throwaway by buying rival Acer, according to a leading Wall Street analyst.â¦
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TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan personal computer vendor Acer Inc. expects its computer shipments to increase 30 percent to 40 percent this year, a reduction from previous sales forecasts.
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Dell Inc.  said on Thursday it is experimenting with new ways to sell computers, a first step that analysts say is needed if Dell wants to better compete with Hewlett-Packard Co.  and Apple Inc. .
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TAIPEI/SHANGHAI  - Taiwan's Acer  will  buy Gateway  for $710 million, creating the world's No.  3 PC maker and doubling its U.S. presence while dealing a blow  to arch-foe Lenovo's  efforts to grow in Europe.
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A fast growth rate and recent acquisitions in the U.S. and Europe will extend Acer&#39;s lead over Lenovo Group as the world&#39;s third-largest PC vendor behind Hewlett-Packard&#160;and Dell, according to a study released by Gartner on Wednesday.Acer and Lenovo stood neck-and-neck in global PC shipments with 8.1 percent and 8 percent market shares, respectively, in the third quarter of 2007. Before acquisitions, Acer shipped 5.54 million PC units worldwide, a healthy 58 percent year-over-year increase. The growth rate overshadowed Lenovo, which shipped 5.48 million PCs, a 22.8 percent increase.Gartner&#39;s quarterly figures were compiled before&#160;Acer finished its acquisition of Gateway&#160;on Wednesday for $710 million. Acer also funded Gateway&#39;s proposed acquisition of European PC vendor Packard Bell&#160;for an undisclosed sum. That was&#160;a blow to Lenovo Group, which in early August revealed it was in discussions with Packard Bell over a possible acquisition.Packard Bell is largely a European vendor and has a small market share, similar to eMachines in the U.S before it was acquired by Gateway, said Diana Maranon, managing partner at Averil Capital Markets Groups. Maranon&#39;s company brokered Gateway&#39;s Packard Bell acquisition.An IDC report, also released Wednesday, listed Lenovo as the world&#39;s third-largest PC vendor but indicated&#160;Acer could overtake Lenovo&#160;with its growth rates in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa and Asia-Pacific markets, excluding Japan. Acer&#39;s U.S. PC shipments grew more than 100 percent during the third quarter, though it could face more pressure from competitors as it continues to expand, IDC said.In the U.S., Acer replicated the business strategy that made it highly successful in Europe: de-emphasize retail, sell through indirect channels, and offer low, competitive prices, said Roger Kay, founder and president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. Acer stands at the low end in the U.S. market, and the Gateway acquisition gives it a good position in the middle and high-end markets, Kay said.Gateway&#39;s worldwide shipments increased 8 percent in the third quarter, though U.S. shipments fell 14.4 year over year, Gartner said.Acer&#39;s global growth strategy is paying dividends and could affect Lenovo in the U.S. and Europe, Kay said.The Packard Bell acquisition was a defensive move for Acer to ensure Lenovo doesn&#39;t get a toehold in the European market, Kay said. Acer is already one of the top notebook sellers in Europe.Lenovo showed positive growth in global markets, but Acer&#39;s acquisitions block Lenovo from acquiring some valuable shelf space for product distribution, said Charles Smulders, managing vice president at Gartner, in an e-mail interview.Lenovo could not be reached for comment.Global PC shipments&#160;during the third quarter were 68.4 million, driven by high demand for laptops in the home market, Gartner said. HP was the world&#39;s top PC vendor, with 12.8 million units shipped, a 18.8 percent market share, and 33.1 percent year-over-year volume growth. Dell followed with a 14.4 percent market share, shipping 9.86 million units, a 3.5 percent increase.The survey includes desktop PCs, laptops, and x86 servers.
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(InfoWorld) - Shares of Acer Inc. opened down by their daily limit on the Taiwan Stock Exchange early Tuesday, as investors took a dim view of its decision to buy U.S. PC vendor Gateway Inc. Acer stock opened down 6.9 percent at NT$59.2 (US$1.79), the lower limit imposed by trading rules on the local stock exchange, and wallowed around that level for much of the early trading day. "People think Acer paid too much for Gateway," said Andrew Teng, sales manager at Taiwan International Securities Corp. in Taipei. According to a rumor in the market, Acer and rival Lenovo Group Ltd. fought a bidding war for Gateway, upping the price, he added. Lenovo declined to immediately comment. Stock and industry analysts offered negative views of the deal, and some feared Acer could run into the same problem with the merger as Taiwan's BenQ Corp. did with its acquisition of Siemens AG's mobile phone division,Â a business that ultimately filed for bankruptcy protectionÂ in Germany. The Siemens deal proved to be too costly for BenQ, which couldn't turn the business around. The company, formerly part of the Acer Group, said it spent over US$1 billion trying to make the purchase work. There are only a few parallels with the Acer-Gateway deal, mainly that Gateway is viewed as a business in decline. "We are negative on this acquisition," wrote Daniel Chang, PC industry analyst at Macquarie Research Equities in Taipei. "Acer's brand has begun to attract U.S. consumers so we believe it would have been much cheaper to build U.S. market share on its own than to pay such a high premium for a declining market share PC company." The company's U.S. market share dropped to 5.6 percent in the second quarter, down from 6.5 percent at the same time last year, according to industry researcher IDC. Acer paid a 57 percent premium over Gateway's closing share price of US$1.21 last Friday, which was too high, Chang said. Acer agreed to buy Gateway in an all-cash deal for US$1.90 per share, or around US$710 million. News of the deal sent Gateway shares up 50.4 percent, to US$1.82 per share, on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. Acer said the deal will transform it into a much larger company with US$15 billion per year in revenue and shipments of nearly 20 millionÂ PCs and give it a solid base in the important U.S. market. The company plans to market multiple PC brands worldwide after the transaction, thereby increasing sales. The deal will also help it cut costs. Size is vital to gaining volume discounts from parts suppliers, the company said. Analysts weren't convinced. Chang cautioned that Gateway's market share was on the decline anyway, and that if Gateway buys Packard Bell BV, which it has pledged to do, the deal will add another company to Acer's stable that it doesn't need. Packard Bell is strong in Europe, where Acer already holds significant market share. Jack Gold, from industry researcher J. Gold Associates, said the Acer-Gateway combination brings little synergy to the market other than size. "Both Gateway and Acer are primarily consumer brands, with little presence in the enterprise [market] -- where margins are higher, and where higher-end laptops, an increasingly important share of the PC market, are sold," he said in an e-mail. Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs listed several positives for the deal in a report, but offered up a generally negative view overall. In particular, the possible acquisition of two companies at once, Gateway and Packard Bell, could slow the process of bringing each company into the Acer fold. "We think Acer may still experience the pain of consolidation of three different companies for a certain period of time," wrote Henry King, director of Asia-Pacific investment research at Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC, in a report on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs acted as an advisor for Gateway in the deal with Acer. Â
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The drumbeat says Dell may be considering retail. Plus: Tell us about your favorite hackable Xbox 360 HD DVD player. In Gadget Lab.
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Lenovo retook the number three place among PC vendors, but Acer could soon leapfrog back into the spot.
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(InfoWorld) - 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. Under terms of the agreement announced Monday, Acer will purchase all of Gateway's outstanding shares for $1.90 per share. The deal has already been approved by the boards of directors at both companies and should be completed by the end of this year, subject to government approval, Acer said in a statement. Gateway's shares ended at $1.21 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. "This is the biggest acquisition in Acer's 30 year history," said J.T. Wang, Acer's chairman, speaking at a news conference in Taipei. "After this acquisition, we are solidly number three in the global PC market," Wang said. Acer's acquisition deal with Gateway also derails rivalÂ Lenovo Group's plans to acquire Packard Bell. Alongside the acquisition deal with Acer, Gateway unveiled plans to exercise its right of first refusal to acquire shares in Packard Bell's parent company, PB Holding Co. SARL, from John Hui. Hui is the founder ofÂ eMachines, which Gateway acquired in 2004, and the largest shareholder in Packard Bell. Gateway did not disclose how much it has offered for Hui's stake in PB Holding. Acer's efforts to overtake Lenovo will get a big boost from Gateway, which was the world's eighth largest PC vendor during 2006. Together Acer and Gateway shipped 18.6 million PCs during 2006, compared to 16.6 million PCs shipped by Lenovo. The Gateway acquisition will have the greatest impact in the U.S., where Acer has been growing fast but remains in sixth place among PC vendors. "This is definitely a good play for them from the U.S. consumer perspective," said Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific. However, the big question is how Acer plans to integrate Gateway with its own operations, and how smoothly the integration process will go, he said. Acer's share of the U.S. PC market grew 164 percent during the second quarter of 2007, compared to the same period last year. Acer shipped 888,000 PCs to U.S. customers, giving the company a 5.2 percent share of the market. By comparison, Gateway was the fourth-largest PC vendor during the second quarter, shipping 965,000 PC and taking 5.6 percent share of the U.S. PC market. The Gateway acquisition vaults Acer into the number three spot in the U.S. PC market, behind only HP and Dell. "Acer is an outstanding strategic partner for Gateway," said Ed Coleman, CEO of Gateway, in a video feed at the Taipei news conference to announce the deal. Gateway reported net income of $1.9 million for the second quarter, compared to a loss of $7.7 million one year earlier. The company said gains in its retail division during the period were offset by declining revenue in its professional and direct divisions. However, talks are currently underway to sell off the professional division to a third party, Gateway said Monday. The company did not offer details of those discussions. Â
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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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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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Dell chief executive Kevin Rollins on Monday gave the most direct indication yet that a deal with AMD may be on the way, dropping a strong hint that the news was a question of when, not if.
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Retail consumers in the U.S. could begin to see great deals on computer purchases as PC vendors get more competitive in the wake ofÂ Acer's announcement on Monday that it plans to buy Gateway.
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Taiwan&#39;s Acer Inc will buy  Gateway Inc for $710 million to double its U.S. presence and  unseat China&#39;s Lenovo as the world&#39;s No. 3 PC maker, while  dealing a blow to its efforts to grow in Europe.
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Dell Inc.  is considering  offering the Linux operating system as an alternative to  Microsoft Corp.'s  Windows on its personal computers, a  Dell spokesman said on Tuesday.
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Moo moos investor concerns over Gateway Computer maker Acer is looking into the possibility of a Chinese acquisition following its decision to buy US-based Gateway.â¦
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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.