It's all over the media and the blogs, so let me add mine to the pile: Acer has bought Gateway, with its familiar white and black cow logo. Reuters reports:Taiwan's Acer said on Monday it will buy Gateway for $710 million, creating the world's No.3 PC maker, as Acer doubles its presence in the United States, Gateway's fiercely competitive home market.Taiwan steps out!
Acer said it would pay $1.90 per Gateway share, representing a 57 percent premium over Gateway's last closing price.
Acer said the merger would create a company with more than $15 billion in sales and 20 million PCs shipped per year, adding it would keep the Gateway brand in the U.S.
"This acquisition of Gateway and its strong brand immediately completes Acer's global footprint by strengthening our U.S. presence," Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said in a statement.
"This will be an excellent addition to Acer's already strong positions in Europe and Asia."
Acer shares closed down 1.85 percent at T$63.60 before the announcement.
The Taiwan firm has said for months it was in acquisition talks, but had declined to name the target.
The deal would help Acer immediately double its U.S. market share, combining its own 5.2 percent share with Gateway's 5.6 percent, according to second-quarter market data from IDC.
The deal is expected to be completed by December, and the merged company would still be a distant third in the U.S. behind market leader Dell , at 28.4 percent, and Hewlett-Packard , at 23.6 percent, according to IDC.
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But execution will be key -- a lesson Lenovo learned when it stumbled badly after forecasting similar cost savings following its 2005 acquisition of IBM's PC business.
"This starts to bring back memories of the whole Lenovo-IBM deal," said IDC's Ma. "Can you integrate the operations of the two organisations quickly enough to reap the benefits of that kind of scale? That remains to be seen."
[Taiwan]
5 comments:
I also see that iPod manufacturer Hon Hai (Foxconn) is looking to buy Quanta. Perhaps a larger consolidation trend is afoot in Formosa?
I saw this on the news last night. It was interesting to hear both the announcers and ACER personnel pronouncing it as "getaway". It wasn't until I saw the logo that I knew what they were talking about. I can understand crappy English by the media, but I was a little surprised that Acer wouldn't use people who could pronounce the products they were discussing.
These Western/East Asian mergers and acquisitions have yet to prove themselves. Lenovo/IBM mobile computing, BenQ/Siemens mobile phone handsets and now this.
Another link on Bloomberg: Acer Shares Fall by Daily Limit on Gateway Purchase
I thought most Americans bought Dells, HPs or Apples now-a-days. Dell laptops are so low cost, its hard to compete.
My first impression is this may be another Acer Corp blunder similar to the (Acer)Benq Seimen's mistake that cost them their HQ building and much more.
There was also a story circulating around yesterday about a Chinese company (Great Wall?) interested in buying Seagate. It's been denied, but who knows? Many US corporations may become buy-able if the dollar tanks any lower.
Acer's designs are getting better, but I'm disappointed with their quality. In fact, the Acer laptop that I'm typing this comment on has fallen apart less than a year after I bought it.
Well, we'll see. Maybe it will work out.
Michael
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