Gateway shuts operations outside US
Job purge to push profitability
PC vendor Gateway has confirmed that it will pull out of all countries outside the US with a loss of 5000 jobs, or a quarter of its workforce.
Gateway has been considering the move for some time, having struggled to break into PC markets outside the US [CRN, 13 August].
While the company has confirmed that operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will close immediately, it has yet to officially confirm the shutting down of its European operations, as European Commission law prevents automatic closure.
However, it has included the 1050 UK, Ireland and continental job losses in its worldwide total.
Gateway also intends to shut call centres in four states in the US, and to cut a further 3000 jobs.
The company will take a $475m (£327m) restructuring charge in its third quarter, in which it expects to make a loss.
However, the vendor said it expected to be profitable by the end of the year.
Ted Waitt, chief executive of Gateway, said: "As tough as these decisions were, we're doing all the right things to create a new company with a competitive edge and a healthy, profitable future. We don't have to be a global business to succeed."
A representative at analyst Ovum Holway, said: "This really shows the extent of the downturn, and in particular the enormous vulnerability of Ireland, which has attracted such a high proportion of these kinds of inward investment."
Ireland has seen Intel, Xerox and Computacenter cut jobs in the last two months.
The analyst said that resellers Computacenter and SCH are best-suited to capitalise on Gateway's restructure, but it added PCs are "a dwindling market".
- PC manufacturer Acer has announced reduced results for its first half of 2001. Profit fell 86 per cent to $23.7m, down from $164m over the same period last year. Turnover fell by 35 per cent to $1bn, compared with $1.6bn in the first six months of 2000.