Gateway plans to acquire Packard Bell BV

According to reports, Gateway will be exercising its right of first refusal (or ROFR) to acquire control of Packard Bell BV by nabbing all of the shares of the PC-maker's parent company. The computer giant first gained the ROFR in Summer of 2006, in an agreement made with the former owner of eMachines, Lap Shun (John) Hui. Apparently, Mr. Hui proposed sale of the his share in PB Holding Company, S.ar.l, based on a price offered by a mysterious "third party." It's all becoming clear to us now... Acer is interested in purchasing Gateway so they can get to the diamond-in-the-rough that is Packard Bell! Very sneaky guys.

[ilh @ Aug 27th 2007 12:59PM]

Acer to aquire Gateway to aquire Packard Bell BV?

[paragraph @ Aug 27th 2007 1:13PM]

Bell has a big hold on england and the immediate area of europe ;)

It's a pretty dirty trick i have to say, but it makes great business sense.

Acer gains a foothold in america by getting gateway (consumers are more likely to go with a gateway, one of the three major brands (Dell, HP/Compaq being the other two) that consumers identify as making 'good' computers, than an Acer, practically a no-name when it comes to consumer computers, additionally it stands to gain in the corporate world with what little gateway has there.) and england by getting Bell (i know little about england, but i know Packard Bell isn't doing too bad and is pumping out decent computers too.

This of course will hurt Lenovo, they wanted at Bell (hinting at the fact that Bell is a worthy acquisition).

After the smoke clears this might be good, gateway may not have the best computers, but they do have a name, something acer does not (at least in america). As long as they don't do something stupid (like re-name gateway) acer should reap the benifits of gateway's good name.

[speedyrulz8 @ Aug 27th 2007 4:52PM]

Last I heard Acer was the 3rd largest seller of notebook computers, ahead of Gateway. Only beaten by HP and Dell.

[tehpwnmstr @ Aug 27th 2007 1:04PM]

ROFR apparently does not equal a ROFL WOFL. :(

[Killian @ Aug 27th 2007 1:05PM]

I honestly didn't even know packard bell still existed

[aztechmanager @ Aug 27th 2007 1:07PM]

Man, Gateway, Emachines, Packard Bell, and ACER? All of them becoming one? Watch out Dell, looks like you have an old crappy computer with a shiny paint job heading your way to take some market share. I was really hoping that I would never hear the word "emachine" ever again. I shutter at the sound of their power supplies going out.

[Yimmy @ Aug 27th 2007 1:08PM]

*shudder* jeeze I hate spelling

[Hollywood Ron @ Aug 27th 2007 1:14PM]

It's like a Katamari Damacy situation, except with horrible computers rather than just random crap.

-----
Ron
http://www.flektor-blog.com

[daedalus @ Aug 27th 2007 2:09PM]

Packardmari Dumbasshi?

[Hollywood Ron @ Aug 27th 2007 2:11PM]

I guess when you flush enough crap into the market, some of it's going to get on user shoes. We already know it rolls downhill, so I guess it also plops on desks.

[dmitry @ Aug 27th 2007 1:20PM]

i'm most surprised to find that both gateway and packard bell still exist!

my first compy was a packard bell 386dx!

[B @ Aug 27th 2007 2:03PM]

Packard Bell, diamond-in-the-rough? lmao

That's a good one

[DJKRAZ @ Aug 27th 2007 2:26PM]

Agreed... I've never once heard of a packard bell being anything better than a door stop. The fact that a tech news site such as engadget would post something saying that p-bell is a diamond in the ruff gives me serious concerns as to who is approving the articles around here! In my experience, eMachines isn't much better.

[Justin @ Aug 27th 2007 3:13PM]

http://www.sarcasmsociety.com/howtobesarcastic/lessonone.php

Sarcasm is a wonderful thing.

[B @ Aug 27th 2007 4:35PM]

If they were trying to be sarcastic, they should have put diamond-in-the-rough in quotes, to indicate that or used some other method. I would hope they weren't implying that the company known as Packard Bell is worth anything more than the screws holding their POS computers together.

[Richard Cartwright @ Aug 27th 2007 7:40PM]

Actually back in the distant day, say mid 80s they were a contender. Then CompuAdd pretty much took them out and was in turn put out of business by mail order and overinvestment in brick and mortar stores. Gateway was the high horse in the early to mid 90s and then Dell. Just because a brand is no name in the US does not mean it does not have some mojo elsewhere in the world.

[B @ Aug 28th 2007 2:01PM]

Packard Bell has a reputation here in the US, it's just a bad one. I hope that the computers they sold over seas wasn't the junk that we got over here.

[iliarules @ Aug 27th 2007 3:14PM]

I wish I could understand why something called a "Right of Refusal" meant that they wanted to acquire something. Usually the word refusal means "DO NOT WANT".

[Froggy @ Aug 27th 2007 4:22PM]

it means you have the right to be the first to refuse to bid on a sale. i.e if I rent your house, and you want to sell it, many cities give the renter the right of first refusal, meaning I can pay you the asking price and get the house.

[John @ Aug 27th 2007 3:45PM]

I bet the acer execs are sitting in the corporate headquarters, looking at a chart that shows the major manufacturers of sub-par computers, and under the chart it just says "OM NOM NOM"

[Froggy @ Aug 27th 2007 4:19PM]

so Acer is looking for a Gateway to Packard Bell? (hehehe... uhh.. lame)

[Ron Schmidt @ Aug 27th 2007 4:23PM]

Gah! I have some ACER products..Laptop, Monitors etc. I LOVE them so far..great price with no Prob's - Hope that dosen't change....(Have had nothing but trouble with Gateway AND my old Packard Bell PCs...)

[speedballz @ Aug 27th 2007 5:01PM]

gateway is not acquiring packard bell. it's acer that's acquiring gateway.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Taiwan-Acer-Gateway.html?ref=business

[Too Bad @ Aug 27th 2007 11:59PM]

@speedballz.

Gateway is exercising it's right to first refusal. This means they get first dibs on purchasing PB. I do not think it is a buy 1 to get another deal, but more of a Global footprint? I read the following article today about the deal.

http://mytechdirect.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1046