Gateway to Cut 1500 More Jobs

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Yep that economy's sure improving Georgie boy.

By Franklin Paul

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gateway Inc. (NYSE:GTW - news) on Thursday posted a narrower loss aided by cost cutting, and said it would cut 1,500 jobs or some 43 percent of its work force, continuing a dramatic makeover begun after its merger with rival personal computer maker eMachines.


Gateway, which in March bought eMachines and cut 2,500 jobs soon after, stills expect to turn a profit next year, fueled by sales of Gateway- and eMachines-branded PCs, and consumer electronics, sold through retail chains like Best Buy.


Poway, California-based Gateway said its first-quarter net loss to common shareholders was $165.5 million, or 49 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $200.5 million, or 62 cents a share.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=4&u=/nm/20040430/bs_nm/tech_gateway_earns_dc

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. The Untold Gateway Story.

As it was told to me, by someone who should REALLY know:

After Ted Waitt left for the first time, Gateway brought in some new people and the company broke up internally, into little, petty, competeing fiefdoms. Internally, people were going out of their way to torpedo other people's projects, just for the shear fun of it. This created opportunity for a few and paralysis for the company.

After Ted came back and started cleaning up the mess, it became apparent that there was a fiscal nightmare. Infrastructure had been allowed to fall apart. There was, and I quote "lots and lots of funny paper". When I pressed this person, it was communicated to me, in a manner to say what you mean without saying what you mean, that some people had been playing in the derivatives market with company money and booking lots of very interesting numbers based upon that crap.

Is it true? I think so. Make your own decisions.

[Sannum]

5. I will never

I will never buy another gateway. I have a toshiba now, but next time I get a new one, it will be a MAC.

[KTM]

2. The deal was good news to some...

"{eMachines} Founder Lap Shun "John" Hui distributed more than half of the profit from the $290 million cash and stock sale {of eMachines to Gateway}, announced in January.

The 140 employees, ranging from managers to warehouse workers, received checks equal to at least 30 percent of their annual salaries, and some executives got nearly $100,000. About two dozen executives split 12.5 million shares of stock.

"Typically, an owner would keep everything. But John felt very strongly that every employee should be rewarded and share in the transaction," said Wayne Inouye, former eMachines chief executive who took over the same role at Gateway."

http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=6894

[mbperrin]

3. There goes that *Bush job machine again!

nt

[DS1]

4. mmm cowbox

They used to be good, even better than Dell at times, but then they cut corners, and the people that could recognize corner cutting stopped buying them.

Things like minimum possible power supply wattage, HD cables that fit the factory shipped and ~only~ factory shipped configuration with ~no~ room for expansion. Shoddy mounts, loud fans, cheap cases, etc.

Their laptops at our school are always outlasted by Dells, and obviously, that's not a good thing. In fact they were only offered to students in order to set off a price war between them and Dell.

No, I'm not happy about Dell outsourcing. I hate Dells just like any other prebuilt computer. If ~I~ didn't build it, there's no guarantees. But I can tell you that cowboxes have declined, severely.