Acer to acquire Gateway

Acer's pending acquisition of Gateway is expected to have little impact on the channel unless the company finds a way to take advantage of Gateway's brand and education business to increase its channel presence, the solution provider said, according to Channel Web.

Acer plans to acquire Gateway for $1.90 per share cash, or a total of about $710 million in a deal expected to close by December.

At the same time, Gateway says it plans to exercise its right of first refusal to acquire all the shares of PB Holding Company, the parent company for Packard Bell BV. Lenovo said earlier this month it was considering an acquisition of Packard Bell.

As the federal government takes steps to standardise IT security across agencies, solution providers are in a prime position to help with the transition and future compliance assurance efforts, reports Channel Web.

Earlier this year, the Office of Management and Budget directed all agencies that run or plan to run Windows XP or Vista to adopt a security configuration developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Defence and the Department of Homeland Security, by February 2008.

According to the latest memo, solution providers are charged with certifying applications function correctly on systems using the Federal Desktop Core Configuration guidelines.

Resellers should cash in on the opportunity in long-term storage archiving, according to the latest report by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), reports CRN.

The 100 Year Archiving Requirements Survey revealed that 80% of respondents must keep data for more than 50 years. However, 70% said they are "highly dissatisfied" with their ability to be able to read their data in 50 years' time.

"This is a massive opportunity for resellers," says Juergen Arnold, chairman of the SNIA Europe. "They can talk to their existing customers about how legislation affects their long-term storage requirements."