Taiwan's Acer to Acquire Gateway
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Acer plans to buy the U.S. computer maker for $710 million in a deal that will push it past Chinaâs Lenovo Group to become the worldâs third largest PC vendor.
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Acer has passed Lenovo as the world's third largest PC vendor with its purchase of Gateway, and now it's gunning for U.S. giant Dell.
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Acer, the world&#39;s third largest PC vendor, is taking aim at Japan this year as a key place to grow its booming business, the company chairman said.The Taiwanese company plans to extend its business model of working closely with, and sharing profits with, distributors, to Japan, where companies such as Sony and Toshiba dominate the market, Acer Chairman J.T. Wang told local media in Taipei. An Acer representative confirmed the statements.Acer also plans to release new products in the second or third quarter of this year aimed at ultra-mobility and the low-cost segment of the PC market, Wang said.The Acer representative declined to provide further details on what kind of devices the company may launch, but local media in Taiwan speculate that Acer is planning an ultra-low cost laptop PC to compete against&#160;Asustek Computer&#39;s Eee PC laptop.Asustek created the Eee PC to sell in emerging markets such as China and India. It carries an Intel Celeron processor, weighs less than a kilogram, has a 7-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) and can connect to the Internet wirelessly. The lowest-priced version costs NT$7,999 (US$248).The Eee PC has garnered so much attention for Asustek, which forecast it will sell 3.8 million of the devices this year, that many of its fellow Taiwanese&#160;competitors are developing rival devices. Taiwan&#39;s Micro-Star International&#160;(MSI) has said it&#39;s working on an ultra-low cost notebook&#160;that will use an extremely low voltage, low-cost microprocessor from Intel called Diamondville. Intel has said it will formally unveil the new chip at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai this April.Acer also believes its&#160;first quarter sales will be far better than last year, despite global economic worries. Wang told local media that Acer&#39;s sales will rise 15 percent to 20 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, which ends March 31.&#160;
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To make their merger work, Acer must rebuild Gateway's economy image and compete for U.S. consumers, analysts said.
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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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The new Gateway will launch a complete line of notebook PCs as one of many steps to revitalize its business after&#160;merging with Acer, an Acer executive said Friday.&quot;Gateway&#39;s problem in the U.S. is that it mainly sells desktops, but the notebook is the fastest growing segment,&quot; said Gianfranco Lanci, president of Acer, during the company&#39;s third quarter investors conference in Taipei.New Gateway laptop PCs could be out as early as the first quarter of next year. Lanci said that no changes to Gateway&#39;s product lineup will be visible until then because it takes at least one quarter to discuss new products with retailers and distributors.Acquiring Gateway will raise Acer&#39;s share of the U.S. market to 11.7 percent, the company believes, and will give it a strong brand presence.Already, the company expects synergies from the acquisition to pan out better than previous forecasts. Acer predicts cost savings will reach $200 million, higher than a previous estimate of $150 million, and even the revised figure could be raised again, executives said.A large portion of that savings will come from volume discounts from component suppliers. &quot;When we have asked component suppliers for volume discounts, so far we have not encountered a single rejection,&quot; said Lanci.The cost of restructuring the Gateway business and integrating it into Acer is likely to be $30 million, Lanci said. The integration will likely be completed by March 2008, he said.The strategy of the new company will be to sell products under the Acer, Gateway, and eMachines brands. Once a&#160;deal to buy Europe&#39;s Packard Bell&#160;is completed, it will add that name to the list as well. The PC industry has changed, said Lanci. It has become a commodity business and in a commodity business it&#39;s better to&#160;sell products using multiple brands, not a single brand as in the PC industry of 10 years ago.&quot;We&#39;re going to run two brands in most regions plus maybe another that we use for special things,&quot; he said.Acer announced a plan to buy Gateway for $710 million in cash in August, and&#160;completed the deal&#160;last week. The company has nearly completed a deal to buy Packard Bell of Europe, as well.&#160;
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Acer's deal to acquire Gateway for $710 million has derailed Lenovo's plans to acquire Packard Bell.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwanese high-tech giant Acer Inc. on Wednesday announced a leadership reshuffle and the retirement of Stan Shih _ the company&#39;s founder and a major figure in Taiwan&#39;s bid to dominate the personal computer industry.
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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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Taiwanese computer firm Acer agrees to take over US PC maker Gateway and eyes the possible purchase of Packard Bell in Europe.
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IRVINE, Calif. -- Gateway Inc., a struggling computer maker that has accepted a buyout offer from a Taiwan-based company, said Wednesday it will sell its professional business unit to MPC Corp. in a deal valued at about $90 million.
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Gateway CEO Ed Coleman will resign from his position at the end of January, clearing the way for Acer&#39;s top executive in the Americas to take the helm, the Taiwanese company said Friday.Acer completed its US$170 million acquisition of Gateway in October. Coleman, who served as CEO of Gateway since 2006, oversaw the start of efforts to integrate the U.S. company with its new owner. However, the completion of those efforts will be the responsibility of Rudi Schmidleithner, head of Acer&#39;s Pan-America Organization, who will take charge of Gateway at the end of January.Acer announced Coleman&#39;s departure in a brief statement that thanked him for his contributions during the transition period that followed the acquisition announcement in August. The statement said Coleman made the decision to leave the company, but did not offer a specific reason.Gateway now&#160;operates as a subsidiary of Acer and maintains its own PC brand, which is well known in the U.S.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan personal computer vendor Acer Inc. expects its computer shipments to increase 30-40 percent this year, a reduction from previous sales forecasts.
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InfoWorld - The new Gateway will launch a complete line of notebook PCs as one of many steps to revitalize its business afterÂ merging with Acer, an Acer executive said Friday.
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Circuit City is set to offer Gateway PCs beginning next year.
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In an interview published today, Acer Chairman and CEO J.T. Wang vowed to step down if his company's plans to buy Gateway for $710 million fail.
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Acer's acquisition of Gateway has had a definite impact on its overall market share, its chairman said Friday, and forecasted the manufacturer would be able to ship 25 percent more computers in 2008.