Rude, If MD and Waitt could get along.....what do think of a merger??
* Gateway could be Dell's low/middle end consumer brand....Dell would be the high-end consumer, corporate brand...making clear dilineation in the consumer's mind (which is, currently, not the case)
* Perfect up-sell (consumer) sales cycle...Gateway to Dell...life-long customer...
* Dell could benefit from/expand AOL Time Warner relationship (of Gateway's)
* Defensive...eliminates one possible direct competitor...who, one day, may eat into corporate biz...certainly a barrier to expanded consumer sales....
* "Out-of-box" ops..Gateway has shown more cunning, quicker-to-the-mark..in understanding this ops..this trend...possibly...one big growth op is leveraging current (consumer) customer relationship to sell a lot of other stuff...financing, too...
* Increased leverage in supplier relationships....due to bigger purchases...more cost savings...
* Potential cost savings due to administrative personnel cuts (higher sales per employee, combined Dell/Gateway, then as separate entities)....
Although I'd like to see Dell consider "bets" in handhelds, storage, and other e-commerce....If Dell would do a bigger purchase, GTW would seem on the screen (again, probably fantasy, but assuming Waitt and Dell would get along).... |
