NEC confirmed that it was exiting the European PC market, announcing it had reached a deal to sell its Netherlands-based Packard Bell subsidiary to Chinese entrepreneur Lap Shun ‘John’ Hui. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Although a popular brand of computers in for a short period of time in the mid 1990s worldwide, Packard Bell quickly was eclipsed by competitors, mainly for a reputation of lackluster quality and poor customer support.
The Chineeese! They are’a takin’ over!
I still get cold shivers down my spine when I go to a neighbor/friend’s house and see that dreaded symbol. I know that some day they will come to me and ask that I please fix that POS.
I may dislike MS, Real, AOL, and Apple for some of their misdeeds, but I loathe Packard Bell. They come close to RIAA and MPAA status.
ugh, i’ve had to work on my share of PBs.. I tend to just tell the people they are shot and to buy a new PC.
I still remember those awful monitors that had speakers on the side of them. They looked terrible, and they never worked.
Urghhh. Some must have just walked over my grave……
Edited 2006-10-17 15:16
its a shame that so many companys are selling out to china. We all know this will signal EVEN MORE jobs moving over there…
“We all know this will signal EVEN MORE jobs moving over there…”
You mean like how jobs have moved from other parts of the world to the U.S and E.U previously?
Edited 2006-10-17 02:58
Why is it that jobs moving from first world countries to second and third world countries is considered bad?
It seems that they would be more needed and beneficial in poorer (per capita) countries.
Plus, if one believes in the benefits of capitalism (as I actually kinda sorta do) one must accept that as the world becomes a smaller place, and geographical barriers become less of a hindrance, job competition with people in faraway lands with backgrounds far different from our own is simply to be expected.
With the bad stigma surrounding Packard Bells, why the hell would you EVER want to release a PC with the Packard Bell name on it? If I were a PC seller, I wouldn’t use the name, even if they offered to pay ME to do so
No kidding, can someone please explain the value of buying PB? The name is clearly awfully tarnished. The only other reasons to purchase PB would be for things like distribution structure or manufacturing facilities. I can’t imagine that either of those would be worth more than firesale prices.
I thought we were DONE with that monstrousity – gah, the horrors.
It’s like if pre 2000 Apple built PC clones – and no, that’s NOT a complement.
Maybe I am just lucky but I still have a Packard Bell Pentium 166 with 128mb of ram running DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1 in one partition and Windows 98 in another. I use it to run older games and programs. I have never had a problem with it and it still works great. And DOS and WIN 3.1 fly with 129mb of ram even though they will only see 64mb. Windows 98 also flys with the full 128mbs. I do have two other new computers, one runs SUSE 10.1 and the other Windows VISTA RC2 so I am not stuck in the past but it does amaze me how well and fast the Packard Bell runs my older programs.
I think the Chinese have a ton of money that is burning a hole in their pocket. They seem to want to buy all kinds of crap just for the sake of buying it. PB is/has been garbage, and I doubt there is any business sense to buy it. On a side note, guess where the Bush admin is borrowing money from (to finance the war??) THe Chinese… which is why it is unlikely that any policy will change toward trade practices. The US owes them SO much money, we wouldn’t dare bite the hand that loans us.
Are all the PC vendors getting rid of their PC devisions to concentrate on other devices – like smaller mobile ones ?