Gateway Pledges to Beat Rival Prices on Computers
Wednesday May 30 11:29 AM ET
news.yahoo.com
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Saying it has nothing to fear from a price war,
Gateway (NYSE:GTW - news) on Wednesday pledged to beat the prices
of its major rivals on comparable personal computers and servers.
``From our perspective, there's been a price war in the PC industry since
we opened for business in 1985,'' Gateway co-founder and CEO Ted
Waitt said in a statement. ``So we're veterans of this -- in fact, we love
it.''
The offer, starting Thursday, requires customers to present an
advertisement showing the pricing for comparable computers from
Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news), Hewlett-Packard Co.
(NYSE:HWP - news), Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news),
IBM (NYSE:IBM - news), Sony Corp (news - web sites). (6758.T), or
Toshiba Corp (6502.T).
==================================================================
Wednesday May 30 10:57 AM ET
Spam Makers Settle Spat Over Double Meaning
news.yahoo.com
By Daniel Sorid
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stick a fork in it, Spam's squabble with
cyberspace is done.
Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE:HRL - news), the maker of the legendary
spiced lunch meat made of pork shoulders and ham and creator of the
Spamburger Hamburger, says it can live with Spam's double meaning as
junk electronic mail.
In a message posted on the official Spam Web site (www.spam.com/ci/ci-in.htm), Hormel says it has no
qualms with the alternate meaning as long as one writes SPAM, the meat, in all capital letters, and spam,
the unsolicited e-mail, in lowercase.
While the policy is not new -- a Hormel spokeswoman said it was put up more than a year ago -- the
posting got extra attention following an anti-junkmail conference called SpamCon held earlier this month
in San Francisco.
There was a time when Hormel was not so open to alternate meanings of Spam for fear they would
injure the brand name.
At one point, the company challenged Jim Henson Productions for the creation of a Muppet named
Spa'am, the high priest of a tribe of wild boars that worships Miss Piggy, the porcine Muppet diva. A
court threw out the claim in a 1996 ruling.
And in 1997, the company took on a junk e-mail entrepreneur named Sanford ``Spamford'' Wallace, who
posed with cans of Spam to promote his business.
Today, the story is different.
``We do not object to use of this slang term,'' the Spam Web site states, ``although we do object to the
use of our product image in association with that term.''
Julie Craven, Hormel's director of public relations, said the decision was made to accept the e-mail
meaning of spam after the term's popularity mushroomed.
``It certainly was at a point where it was becoming so much out there, and so much a part of popular
culture,'' she said.
Spam, the meat, is stuck in distinctive tins and shipped around the world and is apparently very popular in
Hawaii, according to the Spam Web site.
The slang meaning of ``spam'' is said to have been inspired by a skit by British comedy troupe Monty
Python in which a group of Vikings mutter ``Spam, Spam, Spam,'' with increasing volume, drowning out
normal conversation.
Electronic junk mail hits Internet users worldwide, clogging the wires with solicitations for everything
from get-rich-quick schemes to pornography.
Spam is not the first brand name to take on an additional, and sometimes unwanted, meaning. DuPont
Co.'s (NYSE:DD - news) non-stick coating Teflon had been used to describe Mafia boss John Gotti as
the ``Teflon Don'' for his ability to keep criminal charges against him from sticking.
While the score with junk e-mail has been settled, Hormel's Craven said the company still plans to
vigorously defend the brand name.
``If somebody used it inappropriately, they could very well hear from us,'' she said. ``Next to our
employees, our brand marks are our most important asset.'' |
