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Businesses The Almighty Buck

Gateway Completes eMachines Acquisition 152

Posted by CowboyNeal from the bovine-inspired-machines dept.
ryanjensen writes "Gateway just completed its $289.5 million deal to acquire Irvine, CA-based eMachines Thursday according to News.com. From the article: 'Many analysts believe that Gateway ultimately will abandon some or all of its namesake stores in favor of selling products at third-party retailers. However, they expect the company to continue selling Gateway-brand products, including PCs and consumer electronics, directly to its customers.'"
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Gateway Completes eMachines Acquisition More

Gateway Completes eMachines Acquisition

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  • AMD (Score:5, Insightful)

    by swordboy ( 472941 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @07:55AM (#8542198) Journal
    Does this mean that they will start selling AMD processors? Great - all they need to do now is get Microsloth to stop delaying 64-bit Windows for Intel.

    It'll be ready in January my ass...
    • what does a 64-bit version of windows for intel have to do with AMD processors?
      • I think he was referring to the conspiracy theory that MS is holding off on the official release of 64-bit Windows as a courtesy to Intel. Supposedly, they'll release it once Intel's consumer-grade 64-bit CPUs start hitting the shelves, thus levelling out any advantage AMD might have had in getting their 64-bit CPU to market first.

        Of course, those who have downloaded the 64-bit Windows demo from MS report that it isn't ready for prime time yet, mainly because of the lack of 3rd party drivers...

  • And future systems from the merged companies... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dark404 ( 714846 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @07:56AM (#8542205)
    ...will be called e-Cows, now with twice as much ugly.

  • Argh Gateway (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Killjoy_NL ( 719667 )
    Ok, I love the packaging with the cow motif (if they are still using that), but that's all I like about it.

    I had to set up a gateway computer for my uncle a few years back, used the restore cd's and Windows kept f*cking itself up.
    I could blame Microsoft for this one, but the horrid restore-menu-architecture was the source of all my anguish.

    This and not having an internet connection handy really ruined my day.

    Has their software improved over the years, anyone??

    • Re:Argh Gateway (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'm not sure I get the general Gateway-hate among geeks. I have 5 computers here, one of them is a Gateway Pentium III 600. I've never had any problems with it whatsoever.

      It came with Win98, which ran fine on the machine. Eventually I "upgraded" to WinME, which ran fine (at least as best as can be expected from WinME) on the machine. Now it runs Win2K, which runs fine on the machine. Everything aside from the OS is still factory. And while I've wiped the drive to upgrade Windows a few times, there's never

      • Re:Argh Gateway (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Mr Guy ( 547690 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @09:03AM (#8542582) Journal
        It has alot to do with luck and expectations. The real beef with Gateway is that they play a numbers game, as do most of the mass marketed computers. They use the confusing nature of PC marketing to sell overpriced computers that have higher fail rates for each part and run slower than they seem like they should. They sell a 2.4 Celeron with PC2100 RAM and their consumers are happy only because it's faster than that 866 they upgraded from, if only just barely. They have no idea they could get a MUCH faster machine by using an AMD 2.4 Barton with PC2700 RAM for roughly the same price, because they do nothing to educated their users. As someone else said about emachines, when chosing between quality and cheap, they always always always chose cheap. You just got lucky and got one without a flaw.
        • They have no idea they could get a MUCH faster machine by using an AMD 2.4 Barton with PC2700 RAM for roughly the same price, because they do nothing to educated their users.

          I don't think it's the computer maker's job to educate their users. The users themselves should be out getting the knowledge that they need to make educated decisions. When I used to sell computers I would take every opportunity to explain to people why it would benefit them to buy something more than the cheapest thing we had, if the
          • Perhaps, but on the same note consumers do expect the things they are told to be comparable. AMD felt the same way and began to rename their chip lines to be comparable for performance. Intel clearly doesn't, as they have no problem with labelling a Celeron and a Pentium with the same numbers. Sure, it's the consumers job to educate themselves, but it's not unreasonable for them to expect to believe the numbers they are told.
            • Sure, it's the consumers job to educate themselves, but it's not unreasonable for them to expect to believe the numbers they are told.

              Brilliant point sir. We may know that Mhz and real world performance are not always linked. But if WE found that out, it's not impossible for others to.

              LK

      • Re:Argh Gateway (Score:3, Interesting)

        by pebs ( 654334 )
        I'm not sure I get the general Gateway-hate among geeks. I have 5 computers here, one of them is a Gateway Pentium III 600. I've never had any problems with it whatsoever.

        I've never liked Gateway. I bought a used P2-266 for really cheap. The only thing good in it was the motherboard and cpu. Everything else was mostly weird proprietary shit. The case was sick mess, and the cd-rom and floppy drives had curvy plastic on the front which made it completely clash with any other case. The power supply was

      • Re:Argh Gateway (Score:2, Interesting)

        by FictionPimp ( 712802 )

        My problem with gateway started in 2000. I had ordered a few computers from them before that in 98-99 for me and my family. I was upgrading my pc and already had a great sound card I wanted to keep. So I asked them to remove the sound card (a practice they never had a problem with before) and I was told that removing the sound card was impossible (it was a non-intergrated card btw, when I received the computer it was a SB128) I was told windows 98 required a sound card and would not run without one!!!

        I wo

      • Re:Argh Gateway (Score:4, Informative)

        by ipxodi ( 156633 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @10:38AM (#8543336) Homepage
        My experience with Gateway in 1999 caused me, as a Network Admin, to never buy Gateway again. My company bought 10 new "identical" Gateway PCs. When we received them in, I got ready to build one and clone the rest in order to make "standard" PCs. Well, lo-and-behold, the PCs weren't identical! Even though we had ordered all the same model # and specs, gateway had used different sound cards, video cards, network cards, etc. They all had the same "specs", but weren't really identical.
        Pulling crap like that really increases the support costs for a corporate network.
        Because of that, now that I'm in charge of determining what brands we buy, Gateway is not on my vendor list.
      • I'm not sure I get the general Gateway-hate among geeks

        The year was 1997 or so, and someone I knew was silly enough to buy one of the gateway premium systems. We're talking the 27inch monitor / TV, Harmon Karmon audio, and video digitizer. In excess of $4000 was spent on this set.

        The system core was a pentium II 266 with 72pin simms, that one chipset that was common among among the pentium pro so not even a 440bx nor 440lx... I believe it was the 440fx as seen in the intel portland motherboard. No a
    • I love the packaging with the cow motif

      I could blame Microsoft for this one, but the horrid restore-menu-architecture was the source of all my anguish.

      I love the packaging with the cow motif
      I love the packaging with the cow motif

      For some reason I'm not blaming the software for this problem.
    • I had a very good experience from a PIII-450 era Gateway machine. In fact, my fiancee now uses that machine, though RAM, video, hard drives, etc. are all different. For me, Gateway's customer service was very good. I had a couple problems when I first had the machine shipped to me, and the new parts arrived the day after calling tech support each time. I am by no means a computer expert, but I am the closest thing to it in the small office where I work. One of my coworker was asking me about what comput

  • Irvine, CA? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dillon_rinker ( 17944 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:00AM (#8542229) Homepage
    The last acquisition Gateway made was also based in Irvine, CA: server manufacturer ALR. Does the Gateway acquisitions guy ever leave Irvine? And will Gateway ruin eMachines the way they ruined ALR?

    • Re:Irvine, CA? (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by mcocke ( 710952 )
      Ruin eMachines ?????

      How do you ruin complete utter crap? I've been stuck with trying to use / repair a few eMachines in my career... I honestly cannot think of a worse piece of junk. Every single design decision between cheap and useable went to cheap.
      They aren't the right shape for wheel chocks, nor heavy enough for boat anchors, and they certainly aren't anything like computers!

      I never had a very high opinion of Gateway (too much "we'll sell you anything, but use whatever componants we can get

      • eMachine bashing (Score:5, Insightful)

        by vasqzr ( 619165 ) <vasqzr@nosPAM.netscape.net> on Friday March 12, 2004 @09:04AM (#8542583)

        Other than the power supplies going out, there's not much wrong with the eMachines. As a former Best Buy employee, some of my friends and I still have Linux on the first eMachines still chugging away in our dorms/basements.

        They only had 2 PCI slots? 5400rpm drives? Integrated sound card?

        They were only $299!!

        What did you expect?

        They basically created the sub-$1000 PC market. Remember what it was like before? PC, monitor, printer, you'd walk out of the store with a $2900 dent in your VISA, and all you'd have to show for it would be an IBM Aptiva or a Packard Bell.

        You could buy an eMachines for $299, get a monitor and inkjet and a copy of Deer Hunter, and you still have money to buy the kids christmas presents. We'd have people drive from 80 miles away coming to buy the new cheap computers.

      • Re:Irvine, CA? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by nakedsource ( 736253 )
        There was a time when you were absolutely right about emachines. But the last 18 months they have turned around and made themselves in the value leader for desktops and laptops. I own a laptop with Athlon XP 2500, 512 megs, 606 gig, integrated ATI graphics and a 16x10 15 inch screen. got it for 1100.00 US and now it's below 1K. No problems so far. And it has wireles and ethernet built in. I'm really worried that gateway will mess them up.

    • Re:Irvine, CA? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      And will Gateway ruin eMachines the way they ruined ALR?

      Or Amiga. Oh yeah, remember that one?

      I didn't even realise Gateway were still solvent, let alone in a position to throw $289.5million at an aquisition.
    • And will Gateway ruin eMachines the way they ruined ALR?

      Short answer: Yes.

      Long answer: Yes.

      • C'mon guys. Gateway is a good company. We've been using their machines since 1995 and have had really good luck with them, but more importantly their tech support. When we've needed it, it's been rock solid and fast. Right now we've got almost 400 desktops and laptops in service from the lowly P5-166 (only a few left) to the brand new E series desktops and the 400 and 450 series laptops. All of them are virtually trouble free including the new 900 series servers I bought last summer.

        On the other hand, we'v

  • Norelco? (Score:4, Funny)

    by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:02AM (#8542236)
    Reminds me of those 1980's shaver commercials gone bad - "I liked it so much I bought th ecompany".

    A company I used to work for bought one eMachine to see if we wanted to deploy them throughout the organization. They were horrible. came deliverred with the ram unseated so it wouldn't even boot out of the box.

    After using just one eMachine, I have no idea what someone would do with the entire company.

    • Re:Norelco? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by DaHat ( 247651 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:27AM (#8542365)
      Despite your experience with a single unit, eMachines has truly gotten their act together in recent years.

      In the early fall when I was looking for a laptop, I found the eMachines M5310 (I think it is) to offer the best bang for my buck, XP 2400+, 40 gig hd, 802.11g wifi. It's not the smallest or lightest unit to say the least, however it does it's job wonderfully, hell, I even use it for lan parties from time to time! If only Battlefield would take advantage of the wide screen.

      I too back in the day came to despise the name of eMachines, but I gave them a shot. When people first see my laptop they say "I didn't know they made laptops" and walk away quite impressed.

      But now Gateway... the definition of crap.
      • I have the same laptop and I really love it. A couple of minor things to set it up with Linux, but I was able to get through them. I also have a fairly recent desktop - also AMD - from them that performs nicely. They really have gotten their aft together in my opinion. I hope that with the acquisition the quality doesn't drop. I can only hope that Gateway is getting better suppliers and better quality control with the purchase.
      • "eMachines has truly gotten their act together in recent years."

        Maybe. But not from what I've seen. About a year ago, a buddy of mine got an eMachines from Best Buy for his kids. Upon taking it out of the box and setting it up, it started having problems. The computer would crash, the modem didn't work, etc.

        I tried to help him, but nothing worked. Eventually, he exchanged the unit for another eMachines, thinking it was probably just a bad one. He ended up having the same problems with the 2nd one, and t

    • I use to work for a company that did service work for equant, warantech, banctec, etc. We did the warranty repairs on a lot of e-machines. When they first came out the were junk. Best Buy finally dropped the line because of a 20% return rate. They are back in Best Buy now and they are doing much better. Worth a second look if your looking at a cheap computer.
    • It wasn't Norelco... it was Remington with the "I liked it so much I bought the company" ads.

      Norelco first built the 3 headed raisors... Remington has the screens.. "The first one cuts incredibly close, the second even closer!"

  • Country Store vs. Apple Store? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:05AM (#8542257)
    When Apple first announced they would open stores nationwide, people pointed to the then already declining Gateway Country Store profitability and said "Jobs, what are you thinking?"

    But there is an obvious difference between the two retail stores. What are the core differences and how could things turn around Gateway or Apple's currernt trends?

    Not a rhetorical question - please don't flame!

    • Re:Country Store vs. Apple Store? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Maintaining a retail presence is a nightmare for anyone unless they keep qualified techs handy. That's the one reason people will 'like' a brick & mortar offering.

      And, not to spark a fight, but there's no accounting for what Jobs is thinking.

    • Re:Country Store vs. Apple Store? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by adzoox ( 615327 ) * on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:18AM (#8542324) Journal
      Apple is a marketing genius - Gateway is a computer company that sells computers just like everyone else.

      When Apple wants a good MP3 player - they create one from scratch and THEN create a market for it (iPod + iTunes Music Store)

      Gateway wants an MP3 player - they copy the iPod or actually copy a clone already on the market.

      Gateway wants a camera, they rebrand a Canon, Gateway wants a printer, same thing - rebrand.

      When Apple was rebranding, they were in dire straits - HP inkjets - 630c rebranded as Stylewriter 4500 - Canon Inkjets - rebranded as Stylewriter 2500 Quicktake Camera (developed by Apple and exclusive to them for 6 months) but really just a rebranded Fuji DS7 camera. Apple chooses to cater to the base and to innovate. Gateway - what base do they have to cater to - a PC is a PC is a PC - if someone offered the same box $5 cheaper 2 miles closer than the Gateway Store, they'd buy it. Apple has a brand and they market and please it's customers (mostly)

      • Re:Country Store vs. Apple Store? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by DaHat ( 247651 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:32AM (#8542400)
        True, however you've got to admit, from the marketing prospective, there is a great advantage to rebranding... the final product has your name on it! Another major advantage, this time for the customer is tech support from a single house.

        Like it or not, most of the people who buy from a company like Gateway are not going to drive down the street to see if the same camera costs a few bucks less, they'll buy it from Gateway or even along with their desktop or laptop and have support from the same company.

        A couple of years ago while getting a tour of the Gateway tech support center in Sioux Falls, SD, I was surprised when many of the end calls would end with the tech asking if there was anything else the customer needed like an scanner or digital camera, I was even more surprised that there were quite a few who would want to be transferred to a salesmen to be sold on such a device.

        • Re:Country Store vs. Apple Store? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by droleary ( 47999 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:50AM (#8542503) Homepage

          True, however you've got to admit, from the marketing prospective, there is a great advantage to rebranding... the final product has your name on it! Another major advantage, this time for the customer is tech support from a single house.

          Neither is an plus. For the first, you're giving your name to a product you don't control. If a company makes great products, they're going to want to keep their name on it. The only way you'll get to rebrand something is if you drop a lot of money for something good (not up Gateway's alley) or get something inferior (more common by far). So, bully, you've just attached your name to a bad product. Now, your second "advantage", you have to support it. This crappy thing you have no control over is now taking customer service away from supporting your primary product. Disaster all around.

          Like it or not, most of the people who buy from a company like Gateway are not going to drive down the street to see if the same camera costs a few bucks less, they'll buy it from Gateway or even along with their desktop or laptop and have support from the same company.

          Ever been to an Apple Store? They have cameras and other stuff all over the place, they're just smart enough not to label them as Apple products.

          • If a company makes great products, they're going to want to keep their name on it.

            Not sure I agree with this. If a company wants to stay in business (particularly a publicly traded company) they will want to sell their product through as many channels as they possibly can. Deals with PC manufacturers provide income that might not be earned otherwise.

            • If a company wants to stay in business (particularly a publicly traded company) they will want to sell their product through as many channels as they possibly can. Deals with PC manufacturers provide income that might not be earned otherwise.

              That's true, but it doesn't change my statement. Yes, they'll take what they couldn't otherwise get, but they'd still want to keep their name on a good product. It's a tight spot for all companies involved, because brand X might take the chance to go on its own

        • , I was surprised when many of the end calls would end with the tech asking if there was anything else the customer needed like an scanner or digital camera

          Don't be...at the local Sprint PCS call center the techs are now forced to sell over the phone like that. The gateway tech support people where probably forced to sell AND do tech support.

          I've only worked in a single call center, but it was an inside-only center for a huge corp. I shudder when I hear the horror stories of people in other real "outs
          • The industry term for it is "Revenue Generation". Each agent is measured upon a range of stats, one of which being Revenue Generation and they must meet a certain percent of targets in a given month.

            Also, during an observe-and-coach session, where a manager or a senior monitor's the agent's call, if the agent doesn't try to generate a lead during the call then he/she would be marked down.

            • Interesting. The techs are pretty pissed off about it, because they didn't used to have to do it. They don't get any more time to handle phone calls either. They are still guided by the old metric on the call resolution times, and now have to sell things as well.
      • Based on my recent observations of friends and colleagues buying computer parts, if someone offered the same box $5 cheaper, but 2 miles FURTHER away from their local computer store, they'd still drive the extra distance to save what amounts to pocket change.

    • Re:Country Store vs. Apple Store? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      When Apple first announced they would open stores nationwide, people pointed to the then already declining Gateway Country Store profitability and said "Jobs, what are you thinking?"

      But there is an obvious difference between the two retail stores. What are the core differences and how could things turn around Gateway or Apple's currernt trends?

      It may not be a rhetorical question, but it's not really a valid one either IMO, as it compares Apples to Orang^WGateways.

      Apple's stores are always going to do bett

      • So why do you say:
        "What are the core differences and how could things turn around Gateway or Apple's currernt trends?" - It may not be a rhetorical question, but it's not really a valid one either IMO, as it compares Apples to Orang^WGateways.
        What makes the above question invalid? "Compare two computer manufacturers' company owned retail stores." You say they are "Apples and Oranges" GREAT, it is invalid to compare and Apple and an orange? I don't think so. You can say what is similar and what is differen
    • But there is an obvious difference between the two retail stores. What are the core differences

      The answer, my friend, lies with today's Penny Arcade comic [penny-arcade.com]... :)

    • Re:Country Store vs. Apple Store? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Paulrothrock ( 685079 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @09:16AM (#8542664) Homepage Journal
      Another thing: Anything you see on display in an Apple Store you can take home that day. Instant gratification.

      You buy from Gateway Country, and you have to wait to have it shipped. If you want instant gratification, you can go to Best Buy.

      Also, people who work at Gateway Country, at least the ones I've encountered, are doing it like they'd do another retail job. Apple's stores are better because the people there care about the product they're selling. Most of them are Mac users. Also, Apple trains them to be the best.

      In other words, Apple did what it does best; being the best it can, while Gateway simply rebranded.
    • I have a friend that is in low-level management in their Sioux Falls complex, and his opinion is that the Gateway Country stores will close and that at least some Gateway-branded items will start working their way into Best Buy and other similar chains. The Gateway stores were trying to be be what the Apple stores are. The intent was to be the point of Sale, but also to act as a repair drop-off site and as a training center. The training aspect never really took off, from what I'm told, and Gateway figur
    • In short, Apple executes retail much better than Gateway. Several major resons are Apple's bigger hardware margins give them more money to toss around (hiring better employees, getting better store locations, etc) without taking a loss. Gateway has roughly the same gross margins as Dell (mid to high teens). Gross margins are the amount that is left after you pay for your manufacturing inputs, in PCs that is components and assembly. Apple has about 10% higher gross margins (mid 20% range). This means th

  • Gateway taking a dagger? (Score:3, Informative)

    by GeckoFood ( 585211 ) <geckofood@NOsPam.gmail.com> on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:06AM (#8542266) Journal

    My experiences with eMachines have generally been negative. I hope Gateway will fix what's broken there, or they will really screw the pooch and end up hurting themselves more than helping.

    • My early experiences with Dell were usually negative also. But they cleaned up their act to become one of the top 3 in the business. I agree, emachines were crap when they first arrived, but I have to say the m6807, amd64 laptop is nothing to scoff about.

      -L

    • Re:Gateway taking a dagger? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by wolf- ( 54587 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:09AM (#8542285) Homepage
      I have a EMachines 600id that has been running for almost 5 years now.

      Straight out of the box, we removed windows ME and dropped linux on it.

      Other than an HD in it, its been running as a little mail server/firewall since day one.

    • Re:Gateway taking a dagger? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by lukewarmfusion ( 726141 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:11AM (#8542296) Homepage Journal
      Maybe Gateway will fix what's wrong at Gateway, too.

      Over the last few years, I've been awfully disappointed with Gateway. Dell and HP have their problems too, but Gateway puts together overpriced crappy machines filled with cheap parts. You're paying for the 1-800...

      At least with e-Machines, you get what you pay for. Gateway produces the same level of machine, but charges you a lot more for them.
      • True.
        Take a look at this [resellerratings.com]. Scroll down and read the customer comments on that page. Scary. I agree Dell and HP are not too good either but they are surely better than the junk Gateway is offering. Unless they improve quality or drastically reduce pricing, they will be looking at exiting the market in 2-3 years or getting bought out.
      • I worked for a company that used Gateways exclusively. Why? Becuase the boss bought one and wanted her work computer to be exactly the same as her home computer. They were terrible. Over-priced hunks of crap. We had more problems with them than I care to remember.

        And then there was that one E-Machine we bought as a PC-based FAX center. What a disaster that was!

  • Can anyone confirm this Intel rumor? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by laddhebert ( 570948 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:06AM (#8542268)
    I was reading another board last week about the sell of e-machines (I had just purchased the m6805 - amd 64 laptop) and one of the posters said the chances of amd 64 chips being released on a wide scale was probably not going to look good at the present time because Intel worked out 2 year contracts with most of the large manufacturers of laptops and desktops such as Dell HP, and Gateway. Since Gateway now owns emachines, it seems likely that their amd64 lines of laptops will be discontinued. I did notice that HP released a 64 bit laptop, along with Toshiba too.

    Let's hope these rumors are just that - rumors.

    -L

    • Re:Can anyone confirm this Intel rumor? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's against federal law for Intel to force Gateway to NOT use one of their competitor's chips... any contract that does so would seem to violate any number of anti-monopoly laws...

      IANAL...
      • I don't think that violates any law, you are bound to a contract which you willingly agreed to (which these companies did). I don't think Intel qualifies as a monopoly either. The laws which govern monopolies do so when some company can pressure a customer to buy their product because of lack of competition. I don't think that's what happened. It's true that Intel gets these companies to sign contracts, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that Intel makes the fastest chip by clockspeed. Mos
  • I kind of doubt Gateway would ever change its name. I mean Gateway or eMachines? Ugh.

  • Didn't they go bankrupt? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by subjectstorm ( 708637 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:20AM (#8542336) Journal
    wtf?

    i thought gateway was on the verge of bankruptcy maybe 6 months ago. i was actually happy when i heard they were tanking . . . and now they've dropped nearly 300 million on eMachines? what?

    did their plasma screens really sell THAT well?

    i must have missed something here.
    • I've got a friend who used to work at Gateway and gave me some good inside info on the company... As much as I've been hoping to see them go belly up and die a horrible horrible death, I'm told that they have a rather sizeable pile of cash to be able to sustain them for several years while at a significant loss.

      Nice thing about such a piggy bank is you can use it to buy things you want... however it can mean that your safty net gets a bit smaller.
    • ...and what exactly was Ted Wiatt's relationship with that cow? They never did explain that in the commercials for some reason...
  • The (thankfuly few) Gateways that I have had to deal with for the most part required you get replacement parts from gateway because they tried to play the, "hey, only Gateway parts fit in here" such as the odd sized floppy for example, or the misaligned screwholes,

    I also rememebr some of the "pizza box" models where it was impractically difficult just to get the case open. Some of those things would have cut you fingertips off trying to slide the top off too fast.

    I was almost expecting a hole for you to

  • Cost (Score:5, Funny)

    by 8tim8 ( 623968 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:30AM (#8542382) Journal
    Gateway just completed its $289.5 million deal

    Actually, it was $189.5 million with the mail-in rebate...

  • birds of a feather... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dthree ( 458263 ) <chaoslite AT hotmail DOT com> on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:31AM (#8542393) Homepage
    This merger makes perfect sense: one mediocre computer company buying another mediocre one.

    I actually thought gateway was trying to move OUT of the PC business, with all the consumer electronics they introduced recently. Guess not.

    • There electronics business is based on mis-information. There cameras are low end retagged Cannon's and there printers are ink chugging HP's, if i'm not mistaken (print 5 test/set-up pages to really get those inks down). However, what makes me really mad is the Plasma screens that they sell. They should have to make it completely clear that those "digital flat panels" are not full Hi Def. but are EDTV. Not that EDTV isn't great, my room mate has one in our apartment and a DVD looks just as good on our E

    • Re:birds of a feather... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Zrane ( 71158 )
      The idea, more than anything, is to use eMachine's established relationships with retail outlets to try and get the Gateway digital stuff like cameras, TVs, etc(some of which are actually quite nice) into the stores, along with the PC's.

      I'm not sure how it's going to work out, but the CEO of eMachines is taking over both comapnies post-merger. Maybe he'll have more business sense than the founder and actually play off the company's strengths instead of jumping off in an ever-shifting list of random direct

  • eMachines - a good thing. (Score:5, Informative)

    by cskaryd ( 448412 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:40AM (#8542444) Homepage
    I've bought 6 of these things for my parents, inlaws, and friends. They're been great. My father has 3 at his small food processing business, I gave one to my inlaws, one to a friend and have one running my mail server.

    Aside from the last one, each is essentially used for word processing, email, and web. And they do that well. Each has been in use for at least 2 years, and I've only had to perform one hardware related task on any one of them. (To be fair, my father jammed a screwdriver in the floppy drive to help get the disk out. Argh.)

    They've been great machines for the non-computationally-intensive tasks that these people use them for.

    I'm 6 for 6 and will continue recommend these machines for the casual user.

    • They've been great machines for the non-computationally-intensive tasks that these people use them for.

      But don't think that there not suitable for computationally-intensive tasks. I've just had my two Athlon XP 2600+ eMachines mini towers ($550 a piece) running hydrodynamical simulations of pulsating stars for a month. As part of the run, I also had a SunFire V480 4-cpu machine (~ $35,000) crunching along side, and the two eMachines whipped its but!


  • Many analysts believe that Gateway ultimately will abandon some or all of its namesake stores in favor of selling products at third-party retailers

    I recently bought a gateway M505X [gateway.com] laptop at Office Depot. I chose it over eMachines, Toshiba, Sony, Dell and Compaq. It is a great machine and I could just buy it without waiting for it to ship...
    I have never seen a gateway computer at a besybuy or compusa though...
  • doesn't crap + crap always = crap?

  • Bleh (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Remlik ( 654872 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:54AM (#8542524) Homepage
    Gateway horror story:

    Company exec decides he doesn't like the IBM thinkpads we've speced and goes out on his own and buys a Gateway laptop (this is roughly 2000).

    We say fine, but we aren't responsible for hardware support as it breaks the standard...right...like that works... For some reason exec can't get his Palm to sync up over the serial connection.

    Enter me: 4 long frustrating days spent trying everything under the sun to get this beast syncing. Palm syncs on three other desktops and two other laptops with no problem, install it on gateway and nothing.

    Tech call #1 to gateway...OS is corrupt reload from rescue disk. Tech call #2, palm is bad...explain that it works everywhere but on gateway.
    Tech call #3...CSR almost gets the balls to tell me gateway doesn't support palm, I inform him that I aint yo mammys foo.

    Tech call #4 after talking with 2 differnt people I am finally transferred to "level three" support. Guy comes on the phone, reads case notes and says simply "That model's serial port is defectivly impemented, it will not work, you'll need to get later revision..blah blah blah..."

    Laptop goes back the next day for full refund, exec gets a fsking thinkpad and has to explain why the seinor IT guy spent 4 days fsking around with his crappy out of standard laptop. He was gone a month later.
  • just heard the entire universe yawn??? One marginal company swallowing another seems like some kind of new low for tech sector news.

  • (Shrug) Gateway stores won them ONE customer... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dpbsmith ( 263124 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @08:57AM (#8542546) Homepage
    ...my wife, who is a careful reader of manuals and a good learner, but not a techie or a computer geek, set out to buy herself a computer a couple of years ago. It was very important to her to do everything by herself without my looking over her shoulder. (You know how annoying it can be when you have a problem and someone sits down at your keyboard, click click type type magic magic and says "works now." Well, it does work, but you have no idea what was changed or why or how to deal with similar problems in the future).

    She bought a Gateway specifically because of retail stores where she could look at the stuff, try it, and talk to real, helpful retail salespeople. Plus she liked the idea of her computer coming in a box that looks like a cow.

    I don't know what the answer is, but the computer industry is still in a state of self-denial about how difficult and intimidating computer purchases are for the average person. PCs are actually harder to buy, install, and use then they were five years ago. Mail-order is not the answer for everyone, nor are "warehouse" clubs or computer superstores.

    I don't know why retail hand-holding isn't working out for Gateway. But I know without it, they would have had one less sale.
    • Umm, so what's the conclusion? Was it a good choice?
    • Oh give me a break...

      She bought a Gateway specifically because of retail stores where she could look at the stuff, try it, and talk to real, helpful retail salespeople. Plus she liked the idea of her computer coming in a box that looks like a cow.

      I don't know if it was the particular Gateway store she went to but I find Gateway Country Store employees to be aggrivating and useless. I knew a person that worked for a Gateway store. He was your typical "I play games on my computer and I installed my own
      • Gateway stores are very much like what you describe in your next to last paragraph. I went to the store and since I'd have to wait, I eneded up calling their 1800 number and ordering the machine that way. Also, before it shipped, I realized that I needed something changed on the order. I called and gave the number of the guy I talked to and he set it up and when it got to my house it was perfect. I also added the 3 year warantee as I did not want to buy another desktop for at least that long (to replace

  • A quality match. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Gr8Apes ( 679165 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @09:01AM (#8542559)

    What Gateway needs more than anything else is a QA dept, and not another low-bid business. Over a 4-5 year period from 92-97, their computers went from predictable usable machines to absolute and utterly complete crap. I call it the low-bid phenomenom. Initially, they started low-bidding parts, so that if you palced an order for 20, or even 5 PCs, you had about 90% chance of getting at least 3 different configurations even if you ordered the exact same PC. (namely - different motherboard and memory manufacturers, other peripherals as well though). This lost them lots of business. Then they "dropped" the continuous low-bid philosphy, going for long-term low-bid contracts. yeah. Then we got the infamous 1 in 2 Viewsonic monitors and power supplies dying.

    After going through about 2000 monitors, we stopped buying Gateway, forever, as the quality never has been rated anywhere equal to Dell. (Why'd we buy 4000 systems, very large organization, with large upgrade needs at the time, and they were an approved vendor with the best price. For some mysterious reason, after all the problems, everyone seemed to favor Dell for their next upgrade purchase. out of 500 machines ordered in the next year, we had 2 bad hard drives, and 1 bad keyboard.)

    Having excellent customer service just doesn't compete with not needing customer service at all.

    • My gateway is very good. If you have not checked them out recently, check again. Since about 2000, thier machines have been doing very well. Not had a issue with any I have encountered.

  • So, will the m6807 come back? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rinikusu ( 28164 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @09:03AM (#8542579)
    eMachines did the "unthinkable" by releasing an actual kick-ass desktop replacement laptop in the m6805 and m6807 series. Both sport Athlon64's. Unfortunately, since news of the Gateway acquisition, finding the m6807 (which comes with a DVD+/-R) has been an exercise in futility. The eMachines site lists the m6807, but clicking "buy now" gets a "there are no online resellers of this product" message. Circuit City is out. Best Buy never seems to have gotten any, although you can find the m6805 at both.

    So, Gateway, eMachines had a great laptop there, don't fuck it up.
    • HP's new zv5000z Athlon 64 desktop replacement notebook is similar to the eMachines M6805, but you can get a higher-resolution widescreen, Bluetooth, a 12-cell battery, and assorted other goodies. You can't get a DVD burner (just a DVD-ROM/CD-RW), and HDs are only 4200RPM, but it has a midrange nVidia graphics chip that should be far better supported under Linux than the high-end ATI chip eMachines uses. Go to Best Buy (store, they're not on the website), do the build-to-order thing, and they'll give you
      • Unfortunately, for my uses (3D content creation, gaming, etc), I rather require the higher end ATI card. And, not being a regular Linux user anymore, driver support under Linux is no longer an issue for me, either. Also, there's no DVDR option and their extended warranty is $299 for 3 years (eMachines is $189, but BestBuy will "pricematch" it). It looks to be a decent machine, but a step backwards, IMO.
  • Clearly, Gateway, a bad computer company is buying up an even worse one. My question is, who is the best? If one had to rate all the companies like IBM Dell and HP in order, how would the list go?

  • Love Gateway Computers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by foo fighter ( 151863 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @09:28AM (#8542746) Homepage
    We have used Gateway systems at our company for the past five years.

    The past two years have been excellent with them. If you order a hundred systems, they'll be identical so you can image and deploy them easily. They have inexpensive long-term warranties and tech-support that will help you out when you have a complex problem. I've had them send me a better monitor when one of theirs burned out. It was there the next day, even before I'd packed up the old one to ship back.

    Their cases are nice to work in now. Completely toolless to install cards and drives. The edges are rounded so no more coming out of an upgrade missing a finger tip.

    We even have a few Gateway servers now and we've been very happy with them. Absolutely no problems.

    I've always liked their laptops better than Dell, Compaq, HP, or Toshiba.

    Yes, the first three years they weren't very fun to work with. You'd order a hundred and you'd get three different video cards, four different network cards, different motherboards, in any given machine. That's a huge pain in the ass when you are trying to image and deploy those in a corporate environment.

    Don't even get me started on their "if you open the case or install any software you've voided the warranty" bullshit during those few years.

    But that's turned around. They are a good computer company, and an antidote to the Dell hegemony in the PC world.

  • Wahooo! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Now I can get all my shitbox PCs from one source.

  • No complaints about Gareway from me (Score:4, Informative)

    by jht ( 5006 ) on Friday March 12, 2004 @10:30AM (#8543253) Homepage Journal
    At my old company, I switched from Dell (bad support problems) to Gateway back in 2000. I bought their systems for the next couple of years, until forced into Compaq/HP by our corporate parent - but in my experience I was getting better quality systems in the old Gateway E-series desktops for less money than the Compaqs were costing. And when I or one of my techs called Gateway, we got to talk to a human who'd actually not make us go through all the clueless support hoops that a Dell or HP would. If we diagnosed a problem, the Gateway tech would actually believe us and send the part (if we needed it) withough giving us a line of BS.

    And they'd also send us a real live sales rep who'd come to visit us a few times a year and show us the actual roadmap, so we could forecast our ordering appropriately. Dell and Compaq wouldn't bother doing that for us because we weren't big enough to justify actual face time (we had about 150+ users).

    Nowadays, though, as I mentioned above what's left of my old company is living La Vida HP, reliability problems and all. And I've got my own place now, and I used Dell systems to set up my training lab (even though I can't stand 'em), because I just couldn't pass up the $150/box I was saving over the equivalent Gateway. Bummer. But that's the market position Gateway's been in. The big companies don't take them seriously versus Dell, HP, and IBM, and the little price-conscious companies can't afford them. At least eMachines helps them in the price-fixated marketplace.

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