NEC has confirmed it is negotiations to sell Packard Bell but declined to name the party with which it is holding talks. However, Japanese business daily, the Nihon Keizai, reported that NEC is talking with Lap Shun Hui, co-founder of eMachines.
Hui signed a three-year non-compete agreement with Gateway as part of the sales agreement but this expires in March 2007, which would give him the number-three vendor in the European PC consumer market as a base to re-enter the market.
The Japanese press estimates that NEC would accept JPY10bn ($87m) for Packard Bell, which is still losing money, even though it abandoned the US market long ago.
Hui is a canny and operator who paid $161m to take eMachines private in 2001 and then gave $72.5m profit on the Gateway deal to the 140 eMachines employees
Earlier this year Gateway disappointed the market with weaker-than-expected sales, especially to business customers and channel partners, and lowered its outlook for 2006.
Hui still has an 8.2 % holding in Gateway as a result of the eMachines deal.
