Gateway, a company once poised to take on Dell and HP as a major, innovative supplier of PCs and laptops for home and office, is soon to be no more. Ten years ago they were on a roll, landing customers as the hip alternative to plain-old Dell, expensive IBM, and sub-par HP. (Well, in the PC market, anyway. The first iMacs were just about to be introduced to the world)
After hanging on for the last few years, it was announced today that Taiwan's Acer Computer, a virtual no-name in the PC market 10 years ago, is acquiring Gateway. And for only $710 million.
This is billed as a shot across the bow of Lenovo, the Chinese company that bought IBM's PC unit in 2004. It will certainly up the ante in the computer marketshare wars, but more importantly it is another sign of the emergence of formerly smaller economies and markets becoming competitive on a global scale, and outstripping American rivals with better management, marketing and prices in the PC market.
Acer is able to acquire Gateway because the company stayed focused and patient, and delivered quality products for many years. At the same time, Gateway tripped on almost every step, trying to move into markets where it had no experience or brand recognition - especially TVs, where it copied Dell (who had its own problems trying to break additional markets, and has since pulled out of many as it tries to right its own ship in light of intense competition from outside the US). I am sure Gateway tried hard to recapture its former glory, and honestly I had not thought of the company in a couple of years, but to me this news is another nail in the coffin that will hold the US PC industry.
And another reason to consider buying a Mac. ;-)
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