Gateway said that it will be purchasing Paris-based PC vendor Packard Bell from Lap Shun Hui and Clifford Holdings Limited. Hui currently holds a 75% interest in Packard Bell, which is one of the major PC builders in Europe. Acer will be funding the acquisition as part of its agreement to purchase Gateway.

Gateway has had a long-standing relationship with Hui. The company bought eMachines from him in March 2004; in August of last year, Gateway said that it had received an “unsolicited expression of interest” from Hui to purchase Gateway’s retail business. The offer was declined by Gateway later in the year.

Gateway said that the acquisition of Packard Bell is subject to regulatory approvals and is anticipated to close sometime in the fourth quarter of 2007 or the first quarter of 2008. Financial details were not disclosed.

huh?

Oct 08, 2007 21:42     

Packard Bell is still around? I haven't heard about them since I bought a P1 machine from them in like late 94.
Andrew report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

big in Europe

Oct 09, 2007 00:35     

Acer and Packard Bell are huge in Europe, I think #2 behind HP and ahead of Dell or something like that. They're big in the same way David Hasselhoff and Jerry Lewis are big over there...
bliq report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Oh ok....

Oct 09, 2007 00:56     

Andrew is right, I haven't seen them around for quite sometime. I do remember those Carmen San Diego shows with the Packard Bell computer the kids uses though. It was a piece of junk of course.
Dio report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Didn't know they were still around.

Oct 09, 2007 00:57     

I didn't know Packard Bell was still around. The desktop I had from PB was a 486 years ago. All I remember the most was that the power supplies used were not the best.
Herm report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Yuck!

Oct 09, 2007 08:24     

Packard Bell brings back nothing but bad memories...
BobT report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

re; Huh?

Oct 09, 2007 08:34     

I remember seeing commercials for Packard Bell; IIRC. They make digital cameras and other small electronic devices ( http://www.packardbell.com/ ). It will be neat to see if there are any benefits from Gateway/Acer owning it.
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

they are doing good

Oct 09, 2007 08:42     

in fact packard bell are making very good quality products; I own now a packard bell laptop (dual core) after Sony Vayo and Fujitsu Siemens, wich both had to be sent to repairing after a few months, and I am much more satisfied with it
onu report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

re: Huh? part 2

Oct 09, 2007 09:06     

I have confused Packard Bell with Hewlett Packard which makes cameras and stuff. Packard Bell does not list the USA as a country they sell to. At the site where 'choose a country' is, USA is not an option on the menu. This could be why some might think they went out of business.
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

long long time ago...

Oct 09, 2007 09:37     

Bought my first 286 from them (1mb ram!!). I wonder if it's still working lol. They were pretty popular back in the days, but read from wiki that they had poor business management (or decisions) and lead to a downfall or something...
eeto report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Matryoshka?

Oct 09, 2007 12:42     

So, Acer is purchasing Gateway, who is purchasing Packard Bell.
Alejandro report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I could have sworn I heard a LONG time ago that NEC...

Dec 01, 2007 10:53     

I could have sworn I heard a LONG time ago that NEC bought Packhard Hell, Then NEC left the desktop PC business focusing on monitors and memory. Maybe my memory is faulty though...
infornography report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0