Acer Will Grow Gateway, Get Access To Packard Bell

So for $710 million, Acer bought Gateway — the same company that was worth $7 billion back in 1997 and purchased eMachines in 2004. Its fall from grace is a testament to the importance of good management and an even better business model.

From the Gateway Country retail stores that didn’t actually stock computers to a brief blip in the plasma television and consumer electronics game to big-box retail distribution, it seems that Gateway may have finally found what it needs most. Focus and direction.

For Acer, the acquisition was part Gateway’s-an-established-brand but also part stop-Lenovo-from-expanding-too-much. Gateway has first dibs on buying Packard Bell, the company Lenovo wanted to buy. Acer and Lenovo are big competitors and now Acer’s going to be able to keep Packard Bell safely out of Lenovo’s hands.

Acer president Gianfranco Lanci says that the Gateway brand won’t change. In fact, it’ll expand. It remains to be seen whether or not the name will play internationally, though, thanks to it’s fair-to-middling reputation here.

Gateway Acquisition Helps Acer; But Will it Help Gateway? [Wired Blogs]