Gateway, Inc.
American multinational hardware and electronics corporation
Gateway, Inc., previously Gateway 2000, Inc., was an American computer company originally based in Iowa and South Dakota. Founded by Ted Waitt and Mike Hammond in 1985, the company developed, manufactured, supported, and marketed a wide range of personal computers, computer monitors, servers, and computer accessories. At its peak in the year 2000, the company employed nearly 25,000 worldwide. Following a seven-year-long slump, punctuated by the acquisition of rival computer manufacturer eMachines in 2004 and massive consolidation of the company's various divisions in an attempt to curb losses and regain market share, Gateway was acquired by Taiwanese hardware and electronics corporation Acer in October 2007 for US$710 million.
History
1985–1990: Foundation
Gateway was founded as the TIPC Network by Ted Waitt and Mike Hammond in September 1985. Ted Waitt was the company's principal founder; he was later joined by his older brother Norman Waitt, Jr. Before founding the company, Ted Waitt lived on his family's cattle farm in Sioux City, Iowa. He had dropped out of two different colleges to work on the farm before landing a job at a computer store in Des Moines, Iowa. After nine months of experience gained on the job, Ted had the idea to start his own computer reselling company that would allow him to sell to niche customers who needed systems in between the lower- and upper-ends of the personal computer market, whose systems were either too limited in terms of speed and memory or too expensive with seldom-used higher-end features. Ted also found that educated salespeople could successfully sell computers to customers completely over the telephone, impressing on him the idea that he could eliminate overhead by having a robust remote salesforce and impressive catalog.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gateway, Inc.” is american multinational hardware and electronics corporation. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gateway, American and multinational, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2167391. VIAF identifies the subject as 149265167. The Library of Congress control number is no2003000771. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000, 1985, 2004 and 2007.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gateway, Inc.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.