Technewsworld postulates that Gateway would be a prime takeover target for Sun Microsystems. Sun's competence on the desktop, they argue, would be greatly improved, as well as their ability to manage at an executive level. 
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It's Rob Enderle. Do not post Rob Enderle articles to this site. No one wants to read them.
And how on Earth Gateway gives Sun desktop expertise is anybody's guess. Gateway are a cheap-jack PC builder. I really wish I was a clueless idiot who could get paid for writing this sort of crap. Alas....
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2005-06-30
It seems possible that acquiring Gateway would only succeed in diminishing Sun's brand. Who wants to associate their server brand with products from eMachines? Other than economy of scale benefits from having Gateway's PC infrastructure, what exactly would Gateway afford Sun in thin clients or workstations? Dvorak's Apple/Sun fantasy made more sense than Gateway.
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As an above poster said, the commodity PC business is brutal and the margins are bad. It could get Sun more mind-share with consumers but unless they plan to put Sparc-chips in those boxes or load them with OpenSolaris I don't see what experience they would gain that couldn't be had by selective hiring instead.
If I had to guess, I'd say they'd by Novell first. They'd get some great talent, real customers, and a solid linux offering for people who'd prefer linux over solaris (see below register article). Plus, with a P/E of 6 Novell is *cheap* right now.
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Sun is moving into the entry level x86 server market, where the margins are slim...
Sun has considered the PC business but will stick to marketing their workstations.
Apparently, they want to keep focus on the enterprise. If they got gateway for a steal then I would consider getting it. They got storagetek for a STEAL..
They keep buying shitty companies and need to get their head out of their ..... their cash pile is shrinking by the day...
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If I had to guess, I'd say they'd by Novell first. They'd get some great talent, real customers, and a solid linux offering for people who'd prefer linux over solaris (see below register article). Plus, with a P/E of 6 Novell is *cheap* right now.
Definately agree. They have some *GOOD* stuff, for both the desktop and server; coupled that with some cash injection to get the VB.NET up to speed, create a nice drag and drop GUI to create quick and dirty solutions for enterprise, it would make alot of sense in the long and short term.
Regarding the purchase of Gateway - it doesn't make much sense; if they wanted to enter into the desktop space, it would be as simple as putting together a pizza box machine, integrated everything, else to swap parts like motherboard, hard disk and cd/dvd drive, and sell the whole thing for around $500 including screen.
SUN has experience in the volume workstation market; the problem is, however, they have to weigh up the possible costs, and whether they'd ever make back the money they spent investing into the infrastructure, both in person hours, support etc. etc. I don't think it would be worth their while - if they were going to do something, they would be better off working with Dell, getting them to manufacture their desktops, rip off the Dell, spray paint it purple and throw on the SUN logo along with a copy of Solaris 10/11.
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What desktop expertise would Sun gain from Gateway, that they wouldn't from purchasing a copy of WindowsXP?
And by that I don't mean to say that WinXP has the best desktop around, just that Gateway knows nothing about developing GUIs and desktop environments!
And my comment is so obvious, that I wonder how could such an article be written or uttered. It's nonsensical.
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I had no idea that Gateway had resurrected itself in such a dramatic fashion. I wonder why I haven't seen any other punditry to back this up. Thank you, Mr. Enderle! Without you, I would be out of touch with reality. <sighs>
Actaully Gateway IS doing a lot better. I've never really been a fan of Gateway but they are out in retail stores now as opposed to being sold direct and this has helped them a lot. Their prices are better than most of the other brands too.
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All hardware today is commodity. The article was a joke, but buying a PC company (any) would provide them with the ability to secure a cost affordable OEM channel for Intel chips. This would allow them to sell the chips for less money because they would use PC vendor production plants and secure contracts to lower the overall cost.
The bottom line in anything and everything is profit. The only important thing in life is money. Without money a company is confined to a niche market, something that even Apple is beginning to brake away from (iPod line).
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Screw the server market, do an Apple and make some stylish laptops, workstations and add some Sun branded MP3 players with a Sun music store. Apple's got OSX, Sun can counter with Solaris. Apple does Intel/PPC, Sun counters with AMD/Sparc.
Apple and Sun can be the yin-yang of high fashion.
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Yet Another Enderle Stupid Idea
Yet, there were some interesting ideas. Rather than gateway as the path to the desktop, why not Apple?
This would make more sense - two great companies merged together.
Anyway, if Sun is such a stupid company, how is it that they have Java - one of the biggest impacts to the software industry, ever.
I don't see Gateway making these types of contributions. Oh wait, they did have the cow boxes and the cow commercials.
Apple and Sun both innovate. An Apple/Sun/Intel combination could be quite appealing.
