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Acer to Acquire Gateway for $710 million

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the bargain-shopping dept.

downix writes "On the way into work today, I heard about Acer buying Gateway. A bold move strategically, I wonder what consequences this will have for Gateway's employees and customers. As the purchase price was at $1.90 per share, those of us that purchased Gateway shares a few years ago are reminded just how far it has fallen."

10 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. ..and nothing of value was lost... by RLiegh · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seriously, Gateway has always made really crappy computers. Compaq and Gateway are two brands I've always gotten burned on (weird, non upgradeable components that basically mean your box is worthless after a couple of years).

    1. Re:..and nothing of value was lost... by massysett · · Score: 2, Interesting

      weird, non upgradeable components that basically mean your box is worthless after a couple of years

      That's true for Dells too, which has me wondering if it is true for all systems from vendors of any size.

      I had a Dell desktop. The motherboard was made just for Dell. The motherboard connectors for the USB, front-panel sound, hard-disk LED, etc. were all non-standard. Instead of having separate little pinouts and wires for each one, the system used a single ribbon cable to connect all these ports and LEDs to the case. So, forget about getting a replacement mobo from anyone but Dell.

      Similarly, the power supply was nonstandard. A standard ATX power supply has a power switch on the back; a Dell PSU does not. This would not be a terribly big deal, but the case does not have a cutout for a power switch on the PSU, making it impossible to put anything but a Dell PSU in there.

      I used to curse Dell for this. Then I built my own system. The case has at least a dozen wires coming out of it--power LED, power switch, reset switch, USB front panel, front-panel audio, etc. All these connect to various places on the mobo. It would be pointless for Dell factory workers to plug in a dozen little wires when they can just get their own, custom-made ribbon cable. That's one less opportunity for the factory worker to screw up. Then, consider the power supply. You and I both know to check that switch on the back of the standard PSU. But the average computer user won't know that. His kid will flip it off, then he'll call Dell and say his computer is busted. Tech support will have to go through one more step on the phone, and for what? So geeks like you and I won't complain that the PSU is non-standard?

      Don't get me wrong, I would never buy another Dell desktop. But I think the parts are nonstandard for good reason. They don't seem to make things nonstandard just for the sake of making them nonstandard--for instance, hard drives and optical drives are perfectly standard on Dell machines and readily replaced. If Dells, Compaqs, and Gateways all have nonstandard parts, it's probably a safe bet that any big vendor uses nonstandard parts--and for the same good reasons.

      The only cure I can think of is to change standards like ATX so that PSUs have no switch and so that everyone is shoehorned into the same ribbon cable--a cure that's worse than the disease. For now, those who know can just stick to Newegg. Everybody wins.

      --
      Penny - plain text accounting
  2. Re:Customers? by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Personally, I was surprised to see that both Packard Bell and Gateway still existed, Packard Bell just doesn't sell in the United States anymore. They have some notebooks and some GPS devices and some USB-pen-drive-sized USB player. They got the reputation has being the crappiest computer company EVAR and were never able to quite live that down in the U.S. market.

    --
    My blog
  3. Dinosaurs mating... by jht · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This takes two companies with minimal brand equity and merges them to provide better buying power and a lower cost of goods. The fact that Gateway was worth only $710 million despite being the third-largest vendor here in the US should say something right there. And it's not good.

    Market Cap of some major US PC vendors:
    HP 125.68B
    Apple 115.8B
    Dell 61.63B
    Gateway 676.29M

    See an interesting trend? Gateway would be pocket change to any of those bigger companies. Basically, they died in retail, were taken over from within by E-Machines (even though Gateway bought E-Machines, the execs from E-Machines wound up in charge - just like when NeXT was bought by Apple) and stabilized just enough to turn into the company into bait for Acer.

    Goodbye, Gateway...

    --
    -- Josh Turiel
    "2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
  4. Re:Customers? by demonbug · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I had (and still have, though it is my "backup" - it works, but the battery lasts about 30 seconds at this point) a Gateway laptop. I was very happy with it. While traveling, I ran into the need for a car adapter. No Problem, I thought, I can just head over to one of those new Gateway stores they're putting up everywhere and pick one up!

    Nope. I find a store, ask if I can get a car adapter for my notebook, only to find out that Gateway stores don't actually carry anything, you can only order items from them. Not just power adapters (which I suppose aren't needed terribly often) - they don't stock anything. It was then that I realized Gateway was going to die - they spend all this money building stores all over the place, and then they don't even bother to stock them with a few useful items that their customers are likely to need. They basically just massively increased their costs without really offering any new or useful services. Brainy move!

    I do still like that laptop, though.

  5. 2 things by kilgor3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are they outsourcing the jobs? and I hear a lot of Gateway bashing here. It's understandable, but 8 years ago I bought a gateway. It FINALLY died about 2 weeks ago. This computer handled being on almost everyday, over 150 linux installs a few windows installs and has NEVER been cleaned out with a vacuum or anything. It's dirty as hell and I'm affraid to open it to fix the damn thing. I primarily used this computer for 2 things; 1) Testing all the latest linux distros 2) Downloading my pr0n, warez and music. I think it would still work if I popped another hard drive in. So all in all I had an AMAZING Gateway experience. I wouldn't buy another pre-made PC now that I use laptops and build my own PCs. I needed the Gateway for school at the time and didn't have the time to build my own.

  6. Acer is Now Doomed by dammy · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Let us not forget that Acer's purchase of Gateway will more then likely include Amiga Developement LLC which is the fileholder for Amiga patents. So Acer will now hold all licensing of those patents to Amiga Inc which is in a death match against Hyperion who was doing OS4. Yes, I know, Amiga Inc bought the code, the trademarks, existing hardware but not the patents. Gateway only licensed that to Amiga Inc.

    So the Amiga curse is in full speed and Acer is now doomed.

    dammy
    http://www.aros.org/
    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-wawdce/case _no-2:2007cv00631/case_id-143245/

  7. Re:two wrongs don't make a right by UncleTogie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I had two floppy drives and that's it.
    Lucky, you had floppies. :P Try waiting 10 minutes to load a 16K program from cassette, just to find the volume was too low/high and you had to start over. Wish I still had the box, even if you *can* find TRS-80 emulators out there...
    --
    Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
  8. Apple should have done this by JudgeFurious · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Seriously, Apple buys Gateway and there is great buzz. Gateway may not have the greatest reputation at the moment but a lot of people out there owned a Gateway computer at one point or another. They didn't always suck.

      So Apple goes into the PC business selling Windows boxes as Gateway and works on improving the Gateway reputation. Then they make Gateway computers the only "PC's" that you can order OSX on. Now people who just wouldn't buy a Mac no matter what can buy a PC running a rebranded OSX (an edition with references to Apple and Macintosh removed, call it PCosX maybe) and that's how they expand the OSX user base.

      Apple never really seems to have their heart in entry level Macs. Gateway could have given them a PC business to play with along with an entry level line of machines that they could make headway in market share on. It would be a fine line to walk to keep from cannibalizing Mac sales but they've proven pretty adept at doing that kind of thing over the years.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
  9. Re:Customers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From personal experience I can shed some light on that.

    Gateway before then had a good reputation for customer service. lifetime service and most of the reps you'd talk to would solve your problems, period. In fact if a Gateway Tech wanted to "Nuke" a system (format/reload), they had to get permission from a senior rep who would grill you on your troubleshooting thus far, approvals were only given to cases with merit. About that time (late 2001) Gateway owned and operated most of it's own call centers.

    Fast forward 6 months and one of their last call centers (actually one of their best) was being closed down in favor of outsourcers who got paid almost half of what we did. We had already experienced the aftermath of these "outsourcers", they had no real formal PC support training, worked on multiple "accounts" (not just Gatway, and not just PC support), and were having customers Format Reload as if it were the *only* troubleshooting step.

    Funny thing is a good percentage of our calls those last months were people calling back because they were told to Format Reload for an issue that didn't require it (say a defective soundcard/ speakers/ etc) and thus needed *more* support. Anyway, the main thing GW had going for it was it's good customer service, but that was done away with to "cut costs"....

    In retrospect, aside from getting laid off (along with 400 or so other people in the same town), Gateway used to be a great company to work for. They cared for their employees (as well as their customers). Some of the best benefits I knew of for the time, very good pay (though not extravagant), and incredibly good training. I can say that when we were laid off we were taken care of, we were all given 2 months, 3 weeks pay as a minimum severance *and* GW hired some folks for 2 months to help us hone our interviewing skills and find jobs (even hosted a job fair in the old call center).

    Sorry to be posted anonymously, but that big check at the end came with an NDA.