[H]ardNews 6th Edition

Gateway Buys eMachines:

It looks like Gateway is buying eMachines for a bargain basement price. Oddly enough, eMachines has been much higher profile in the last year with some surprisingly strong desktop / notebook offerings while Gateway hasn’t been heard from all year. Good move for Gateway.

Gateway plans to acquire rival eMachines in a bid to regain its footing in the PC game and broaden the distribution of its Gateway-branded consumer electronics devices at retail. The Poway, Calif., company plans to purchase privately held eMachines for $30 million in cash and 50 million shares of stock. Based on Gateway's closing price of $4.09 per share Thursday, the total value of the deal would be approximately $234.5 million.

Pixar & Disney Split:

In what has to be the biggest blow to Disney, who is already having a tough, tough time right now, now Pixar is packing up and taking their show on the road. Honestly, I don’t think Disney has had a non-Pixar related hit ( animated movies ) in the last 5 – 7 years.

Pixar, the computer animation pioneer founded by Apple Computer Inc.'s Steve Jobs, said it would look for another studio partner to distribute its films starting in 2006, when its current deal with Disney expires. The move was an unexpected blow to Disney, which reaped a financial bonanza and critical acclaim from the partnership and has struggled with its own strategy for animation.

New VIA Euro Distributor:

VIA is teaming up with Rutronik Electronic Components, a large European electronics distributor, for its VIA Embedded Platform products. Here is a clip from the press release:

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced that it is teaming up with Rutronik Electronic Components GmbH, one of the leading European distributors of electronic components, for distribution of products marketed by the newly created VIA Embedded Platform Division (VEPD). The agreement with Rutronik covers the complete range of VIA Eden™, VIA Eden-N and VIA C3™ E-Series embedded processors, VIA's embedded platform core-logic chipsets and a wide array of companion chips, including networking, communications, multimedia and audio solutions.