Gateway is struggling more than you realize. Its business plan is a mess – there’s no money to be made from consumer PCs, but it’s had no luck figuring out what else to sell. It laid off 3,000 employees earlier this year, and it’s laying off another 15% of its US employees and 25% of its worldwide employees. Gateway has drastically shrunk its product line, closed many of the Gateway Country stores, it’s pulling out of Europe and Asia, and it’s closing a US manufacturing plant and four call centers. Gateway has a bunch of cash, but Standard & Poor’s just dropped the company’s credit rating to junk status. Dell and Compaq are pummeling each other, and Gateway is getting lost in between them. Too bad! I have a lot of history with Gateway. I hate to see them go.
