Gateway Hoovered by Acer
Gateway is being purchased by Acer, as soon as all the Anti Trust issues are resolved, and this bodes well for both Acer and Gateway stock holders with the stock just hovering about a dollar this morning. Gateway has tried many things to become popular, and failed at most of them.
And while it is sad to see the cow logoed company depart, it is in the best interests of just about everyone involved to see the buyout. What Acer will do with this purchase still remains to be seen, but Acer picks up an interesting company with a colorful past, that just could not compete with Dell and HP.
For Acer this means that they get multiple brands, and overnight become the 3rd biggest computer company, as well they get better penetration into retail like Best Buy and Circuit City. With more things for people to choose from, and an expandable market, that might mean bargains for everyone.
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 and Dell should remain fierce, and the companies all work hard to keep prices low. Source: PC World
With commodity PC’s, it is already possible to pick up some top end computers fairly dirt cheap. In reality, the cost for a top end PC is around three to four thousand dollars, and has remained that way since the mid 1980’s. In real dollars though, the only way the PC manufacturers can continue to stay afloat is keep the price points, even though inflation, employment costs, and parts costs have steadily risen.
The only way to keep margin is to get big enough that the vendors are willing to cut a major deal, like Dell and HP get.
In all though, this ought to make everyone happy, and we hope that the government approves the sale, and that the stockholders approve the sale.
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