Mergers and acquisitions of the big names in Computer Industry.

I still remember in the late 90s when Gateway and Packard Bell were the big players of computer Industry in Malaysia. During the Malaysian ‘one home one computer’ campaign selling through the withdrawal of EPF savings in the early 2000s, Packard Bell was heavy on its own advertising which portray how easy to assemble Packard Bell Computers while Gateway was using a cow mascot all over printed medias. Although they are still the big names in the USA, we rarely get to see them in the Low Yatt or Imbi plaza nowadays.

The latest news is Acer is on the way to acquire Gateway in a scheme to become no 3 in the USA PC market right after HP and Dell while blocking Lenovo (a China company that took over IBM's desktops and notebooks) to have a hand on Packard Bell. The deal has already been approved by the boards of directors at both companies and should be completed by the end of 2007, subject to government approval of course and costs Acer around USD710millions. The deal will also indirectly help Acer to acquire Packard Bell which have been eyeing by Lenovo for quite sometimes.

While Acer is on the big move, Lenovo as its competitor, strategize to buy Seagate (a hard drive maker). Earlier, Maxtor (also a hard drive maker) was bought over by Lenovo. With all the big moves from the giants, we as a consumer can only wish that their mergers and acquisitions will expedite the positive rate of information technology, better pricing and services like experienced from HP and Compact mergers.

Hmm what about our big names here in Malaysia especially the Telco’s?

Sources: www.infoworld.com

Signing off tonight, Hanafi from www.hanafionline.com.