"We believe our complementary geographical and product mixes, and our mutual focus on the consumer market makes Acer an outstanding partner for Gateway." explained Ed Coleman, CEO of Gateway. "Joining with Acer will enable us to bring even more value to the consumer segments we serve and capitalize on Acer's highly regarded supply chain operations and global reach to expand the scope of the Gateway and eMachines brands around the world. Acer has made impressive strides in the global PC market and the board and I welcome this merger."
The combination of Acer and Gateway is expected to result in significant revenue and cost synergies. The considerable increase in scale will result in reductions in per unit procurement and component costs for both companies. This combination also creates a real opportunity for the cross-selling of product portfolios by leveraging the customer relationships of both Acer and Gateway. Significant savings are also expected through the increased efficiency of the combined back-office functions. The pre-tax synergies are expected to be at least $150 million. In addition, this transaction is expected to be accretive to Acer's earnings per share in 2008 without synergies.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc. acted as exclusive financial advisor to Acer; Goldman, Sachs & Co. served as exclusive financial advisor to Gateway.
