DJN: =DJ Gateway/Sun -2: Gateway Breaks With Microsoft Ranks
According to Roger Kay, an analyst with research firm IDC, Farmingham,
Mass., Gateway stands to benefit more from the partnership with Sun since it
"gains access to some big-time technology" in terms of both the Portal Pack
software suite, as well as the inevitable use of Sun's servers to lash
together Gateway PCs in corporate networks.
Gateway's deal with Sun - probably the most outspoken enemy of Microsoft's
dominance over the desktop universe - also represents a major shift by a PC
maker to embrace that rival technology.
"Gateway is probably one of the more maverick of the established PC" makers,
Kay said. "They've broken ranks to do business with the guys on the other
side." Aside from Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL) own environment and Linux -
an open-source operating system embraced by a few upstart companies and so
far only tentatively by the big PC vendors - Windows remains about the only
operating system sold with desktop computers.
The Sun-Gateway deal has probably been pondered since last fall, after
America Online Inc. (AOL) said in October that it would invest $800 million
for a 5% stake in Gateway as part of a broad co-marketing agreement. Sun and
AOL had already formed a joint venture - called the Sun-Netscape Alliance -
in early 1999 to sell a combined software product for e-commerce. (AOL
acquired Netscape in March 1999). It was only a matter of time, therefore,
before Gateway and Sun "closed the loop," Buckingham Research Stevens said.
-By Scott Eden, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5253
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 02-23-00
05:31 PM
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