Posted on 10/09/2007 7:00:31 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
Gateway and Packard Bell is done deal
By Drew Cullen
9 Oct 2007 04:29
Subject to regulators, workers etc.
Gateway, the US PC maker that is to be bought by Acer, the Taiwanese PC maker, is to buy Packard Bell, the (once Israeli, then Japanese, now) French PC maker that was going to be bought by Lenovo, the Chinese PC maker, which (according to rumours) had outbid Acer, which also wanted to buy Packard Bell. Got that? Good.
Gateway had already announced that it would exercise right of first refusal to buy Packard Bell: yesterday it said it had funding in place from Acer. And that it had delivered a binding offer for the company. Next step is to sweet talk workers' councils in France and the Netherlands and to push the deal through sundry regulators.
In August, Packard Bell owner John Hui confirmed that he would sell the company to Lenovo. But later that month, Acer took the wind out of Lenovo's sails by making an agreed $710m bid for Gateway. That deal has yet to complete. Gateway bought Hui's previous company, eMachines in 2004. Under non-compete agreements, the company acquired the right of first refusal to buy Packard Bell from Hui, when he bought his new company last year.
Packard Bell remains big in European retail circles, but is a shadow of its former self. When Hui bought the company it was said to be turning over $1bn a year and to be lossmaking. OK, so the company will bulk up Acer-Gateway a little bit more. But who makes money in PC retail?
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this deal has more to do with Acer delivering a kick at its mainland Chinese rival, than with any pressing commercial logic.
It is great news. Instead of needing to avoid the two companies that made the two worst computers I’ve ever had, now I only need to avoid the one company that made the two worst computers I’ve ever had.
Ranks right up there with the Coors-Miller merger, huh? :-)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1908622/posts
Packard Bell ping.
And, AFAICT, Dell is headed in the same direction. When your primary goal becomes cost-cutting, then quality necessarily suffers.
There aren't very many PC companies that will truly practice the "Quality First" mantra. Stockholders want this quarter to look good. Who cares about the future?
That's a right I've exercised for years. Total trash.
One time I took one in on trade (and after making sure there were no pedestrians), we threw it out the window from 14 floors up. Now THAT was fun!
A rubbish bin marries a cat litter box.
It’s a good thing these charlatans are such shape-shifters - all the mergers & acquisitions make it easier to avoid legal action for the horrid products foisted on unsuspecting buyers over the years.
I’ve never even considered buying their scrap metal but I’ve certainly had to repair plenty of it.
It was a HUGE organization, occupying an old naval base. I had never been on a corporate site that had its own credit union and two commercial restaurants on site!
But... I found out that one of the primary responsibilities of a buyer for Packard Bell was to bully suppliers into continuing to send parts even though the company hadn't paid its bills. PB would, as a matter of normal business, not pay for anything until they absolutely had to. That was after they had threatened, pleaded, begged and stomped their feet. They would part with some of what they owed their suppliers then start the whole process over again.
That philosophy made me ill, and they didn't offer a very good salary anyway. I said "No, thanks."
You to, eh?
I've gone back to recommending Dell to people who want to buy a cheap PC. It's not because Dells are very good; it's just that they're not as bad as the rest.
If a customer isn't stuck on buying the cheapest thing he can find, I can usually compete pretty well with a custom-made machine for them.
If they buy something else, they just end up paying me to fix it later.
They can fix and upgrade the old PB tv in my parent's basement to digital?
That was my exact thought also!
I’ve gone to buying off the shelf, even for the office. Last two Compaqs I bought were around $400 each, and and of course far more advanced than the stuff I paid much more to have built years earlier. And each one has run great for the past couple years, each staying way ahead of my needs for office work, games and graphics. I’ll probably just keep going this route in the future.
And even the old systems, from back in 2000, stubbornly keep running and can be used as extra work stations when needed.
I had three Gateway computers. Each one was rock-solid reliable, and even when I, as a newbie computer user back in the mid-1990s, did something catastrophically stupid to screw up that first computer, Gateway techs spent astonishing amounts of time holding my hand on the phone. It was also wonderful that there was a Gateway store right in our town so that I could drag the machinery in for service or upgrades. But as you remark, this is no longer the case. Dell is in the dumper too, and its customer service makes me want to get on a plane and fly to India to personally disembowel all the insolent customer service reps who call themselves “Jack” or “Liz.”
So what’s the alternative? If you want to get a good computer nowadays, is there such a thing?
LOL
Of course, digital and high-def! I may even upgrade the old DuMont!
There is one company out there that everyone seems to rave about.
They’re not cheap.
Find a good, intelligent computer enthusiast where you work, in your family, or in your neighborhood. He/she can build you one for not too much more than Dell and the rest, and he will probably be willing to support it for you too. (At least the hardware)
Or, if you're a bit more adventurous, build your own. There are good tutorials on the web. All the parts are available at Newegg.com and other sources. You can build your own for about the same price as the cheapest Dell, but you'll know it better.
I also happen to think that the motherboards--the main circuit board that everything else plugs into--available to build your own PC are higher quality than the OEM ones from the name brand PC makers.
FReep-mail me if you'd like more info on building your own PC.
Tiger Direct Baby!!! http://www.tigerdirect.com/indexus.asp
Its not your father’s Packard Bell...
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