Cirrus and AMD investors.
Gateway to sell through "in stores" with in OFFICE MAX...
That ought to sell a few more Athlons eh?
quicken.excite.com
Business News
Gateway To Operate 'Store-Within-Stores' At OfficeMax
Wednesday, February 23, 2000 12:18 PM ET
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Personal computer maker Gateway Inc. plans to invest $50 million in OfficeMax Inc. as part of a deal to set up Gateway-devoted "store-within-a-store" boutiques in the office-supply retailer's 1,000 U.S. stores.
Gateway (GTW, news, msgs) will invest $20 million in OfficeMax's (OMX, news, msgs) OfficeMax.com unit and $30 million in OfficeMax. Cleveland-based OfficeMax (OMX, news, msgs) will switch over its computer-retail operations to the San Diego-based computer maker, a move the office-supply retailer said will help earnings. OfficeMax's computer operations have hurt its bottom line for several years.
The companies plan to begin rolling out the OfficeMax Gateway stores in late March. The boutiques will augment the PC maker's Gateway Country brick-and-mortar stores and Gateway's online-retail site where it sells PCs directly to buyers.
As part of the agreement, OfficeMax.com will become the only office-products partner on Gateway.com, while Gateway will become the exclusive seller of PCs and servers on OfficeMax.com.
The move should help Gateway sell more PCs, particularly to small businesses who shop OfficeMax stores. Half of Gateway's $9 billion in annual revenue comes from business sales, mostly to small business. The PC maker hasn't been a significant supplier to large corporations, where rivals Dell Computer, Compaq Computer and International Business Machines lead.
But a separate pact announced Wednesday could give Gateway a needed boast in the enterprise, or business, market. Gateway said it has teamed up with Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW, news, msgs) to provide one-stop shopping for interoperable computing systems. Under the deal, Sun Micro (SUNW, news, msgs) agreed to have its sales representatives refer customers to Gateway for computers that meet their enterprise Windows-based PC requirements.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based maker of server computers and software also agreed to provide back-up support and ongoing product enhancements, while Gateway will preload the Sun Portal Pack, Sun's application software, on its E-Series desktops and Solo portable computers beginning in April. Gateway will initially roll out the offering to the U.S. and expand it to other international regions.
In addition, the companies said Gateway will integrate and support future versions of Sun's application software and tools.
The Slim family of Mexico owns a 7.5% stake in OfficeMax through its private investment firm, Orient Star Holdings LLC. The family includes Grupo Sanborns Chairman Carlos Slim Domit, the eldest son of Carlos Slim Helu, who is Mexico's richest man and controls the telecommunications firm Telefonos de Mexico SA, known as Telmex.
(Compiled from Dow Jones Newswires and other sources)
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