Gateway to Hemorrhage More Jobs, Products

[JamesR]

Looks like Gateway is still on the rocks; according to CNET, the company may cut products and even lay off half of its staff.


CNet Article

[Argo]

Gateway buys eMachines. Gateway turns into eMachines. Hmm, seems buying eMachines was self defeating.

[Kent]

While I'm sorry to see this happening to a company I was once Webmaster for (speaking of the employees they are axing), I do hope Gateway goes down in flames and whatever is left of the AmigaIP is purchased before some k-niving business gets their hands on it.

Business point of view:  Looks like they are wedging themselves into a very nice "Please buy me" location.  Many people know eMachines, and many people know Gateway, but who will buy the corporation?  Enron perhaps?

:pint:

[frankb]

While I'm sorry to see this happening to a company I was once Webmaster for (speaking of the employees they are axing), I do hope Gateway goes down in flames and whatever is left of the AmigaIP is purchased before some k-niving business gets their hands on it.

I didn't know that you were the webmaster for Gateway. Were you responsible for the whole site, or just the amiga.com domain? How long did you work for them?

[Kent]

I didn't know that you were the webmaster for Gateway. Were you responsible for the whole site, or just the amiga.com domain? How long did you work for them?

I didn't do much work with Amiga.com.  Most of my work was done developing communications tools used for inter-department sales associated with the internet.  Other work revolved around writing custom scripts for JAWS and WinEyes (Visual Assistance software) so those who had bad or no eye-sight could work with the tools they had.  One of the nice things I did have was a direct line into the "CEO of Amiga for the week." Though, when we were slow and not being bombarded with thousands of e-mails a day, I had to take care of the really obscure noone knew anything about type emails... which usually involved the Amiga (YAY!)  They originally hired me in '97 (the year the purchase was made) and they booted me up to the internet where I made phat cash rollin in 42K yearly by doing barely anything, I was more or less the Amiga liason for the internet team.  Then the bean counter came in and I got waxed with a slice of pie.  Meaning, my pension check was given to me the day I left, and later sent via post so I got twice the pension I should have.  I later went down to unemployment and milked the system raw while I attended school.  I was there until Feb 3rd of 2001.  I even received top honors in training for Y2K and had lunch with Ted Waite at a damn fine place.  So now, here I sit, still bitter as hell about Gateway letting me go and happy they are falling apart.  I feel for those who have lost their jobs and any who are on the way out.  Except for the bean counter from at&t, who should be responsible for all Gateway's debts.

:pint:

[danamania]

Sounds a little similar to when Apple bought NeXT in 1996. I've heard plenty of people say it was a really good deal for NeXT - convince Apple to pay them to takeover Apple.

Now Apple is run by NeXT's CEO and mac users now run NeXTStep Panther...

(tongue somewhat in cheek)

dana

[Argo]

@danamania

 Not quite. Next's CEO was Apple's CEO and one of its founders. The board at Apple booted Jobs and brought in someone from Coke (is that right?). That's where Apple got the apple flavor of the month. After nearly ruining them with the Mac model & matching OS version of the month, they booted him. The board then asked Jobs back. He sort of brought Next with him.

[DethKnight]

Hmm, seems buying eMachines was self defeating.

I think it was under-utilization of the cow-spotted box. Most of the emachines I worked on were shipped in boring boxes.

[Waccoon]

My best friend worked for Gateway tech support.  I've never heard someone from tech support bash his employer more than the people who call in for help!  Specifically, he talked about budget cuts, being asked to sell products during tech calls, and bugs in their Internet connectivity software which caused people to call in for help in droves.

Oh yeah, my whole CS department at my university used them in the word processing labs.  They were better than than the machines in the Mac lab and library, but just barely.

[Kent]

bugs in their Internet connectivity software

Their internet connectivity software is a rebranded AOL/Compuserve client.  Originally it was their own creation, but it didn't last.

:pint:

[Brian Hoskins]

While I would offer sympathy for those members of staff loosing their jobs, on the other side of the coin I'd love nothing more than to see Gateway go down in flames.

I attribute a fair amount of Amiga's failure (although my no means all of it) to the imbecile management of Gateway.

Die Gateway, dieeeeeeee!