Acer bought Gateways for $710 million

[ryengineer]

Acer announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Gateway. The acquisition is expected to close by December 2007. You can read full abstract at www.acer.com or here if interested.

The acquisition will give Acer, which started in 1976 as a maker of PCs for other companies, rights to bid for Packard Bell BV in Europe, stymieing efforts by Lenovo to expand. Gateway, the fourth-biggest PC maker in the U.S., is reentering European and Asian markets after withdrawing from them in 2001 to cut costs.

Combined sales of Acer and Gateway will top $15 billion with shipments of more than 20 million PCs, the companies said. About $150 million will be saved from the merger, they said.

The acquisition will include Packard Bell's European operations as Gateway intends to exercise its right of first refusal to acquire Packard Bell in Europe, Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said in a letter to employees IF lenovo fails to strike a deal with Packard Bell.

[wackydan]

Shrewd.... very shrewd of Acer.

[Miller88]

I've never dealt with Acer computers, but I do like Gateway. I have a Gateway E4600 desktop and it's been pretty good since I've had it.