Gateway Shutting Down Affiliate Program, Online Website Sales

Just got this message through CJ that said Gateway is shutting down their affiliate program and the Gateway.com website will become an educational website. They also give the typical 2 or 3 day notice, as always, affiliate marketers take it because they have to.

Hello Everyone,

Hope you’re doing well!

I regret to inform you that the Gateway program is being shut down. As of July 27th, Gateway.com will be transformed into an educational site and will no longer be a forum for e-commerce.

Please remove all links immeditately in order to avoid product fulfillment issues.

It has been a pleasure working with all of you.

Best,

The Gateway Team

Gotta love the lack of spell checking nowadays.

Affiliate marketers aren’t the only ones who are losing out; all of the online sales reps are losing their jobs too. Gateway will continue to sell their computers at retail outlets, and, I assume on websites like Buy.com, Newegg, Overstock, TigerDirect, etc. This has certainly caused a little uproar on sites like this one TabletPCReview, where many members were hoping to get an updated C-142XL tablet. One rep they talked to said he didn’t think they were continuing the tablet pc’s, while another said they were the leader in the tablet market and she thought it would be crazy to stop selling the line.

I am assuming they will still sell on the big sites like TigerDirect, but it would be good to get an official word from someone at Gateway. It seems like a bad move on Gateway’s part, I much prefer ordering everything online so I don’t have to deal with the sales people.

Thanks again for the short notice.

Added: Some posts about it on Techmeme today:
From Between the Lines In a statement, Mark Hill, Acer’s U.S. general manager said: “We are shifting Gateway’s distribution method to better align with Acer’s successful global strategy, which was built upon an indirect model.”

Larry adds: Bottom line: Don’t go to Gateway.com if you want a system. You’ll find Gateways at outlets like Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Costco, Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Wal-Mart.

From Yahoo! Finance This change will dramatically simplify Gateway’s business model and deliver significant cost savings, ultimately resulting in an improved value proposition for consumers.

“We believe that our retail and e-tail partners offer consumers the best, easiest and most effective way to purchase Gateway products,” said Mark Hill, Acer Group U.S. General Manager. “Customers can rest assured that they will continue to get the award-winning products and outstanding technical support they’ve come to expect from Gateway for the last 23 years.”

Frpm PC World The change has resulted in some staff cuts, said Lisa Emard, a Gateway spokeswoman. “These reductions have been happening in small waves as the company has methodically evaluated each department and function,” she said.

The change could help Gateway better compete with rivals Hewlett-Packard and Dell, said David Daoud, research manager at IDC. Also, since the indirect model has worked well for Acer, it may be hoping that focusing on the same model can help boost Gateway sales.

Posted by Jimmy Daniels Posted in: Affiliate Marketing, Branding Mistakes, HP Computers, Layoffs No Comments » July 2008

AOL to Layoff Over 25% of it’s Workforce

AOL announced today that it is laying off over 25% of their employees, 5000 of it’s 19,000 employees worldwide, and they also announced they are planning on selling the internet access businesses in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. AOL currently has 3,000 access employees in Europe. This is a result of them giving away email access for broadband customers, those same customers who were paying $26 dollars a month will now get it free.

But massive layoffs around the world are expected as AOL stops actively marketing its dial-up services in the United States and reduces its need for customer-support centers.

Employees were informed of the work force plans at a companywide meeting and webcast Thursday. Specific notifications are expected by October.

Layoffs had been anticipated. In announcing AOL’s strategy shift Wednesday, Time Warner said it expected to spend $250 million to $350 million through 2007 to implement the changes, about half of that for employee severance.

The cuts follow several rounds in recent years, including about 1,300 customer-service jobs announced in May. AOL currently employs 19,000 around the world. Source: Yahoo News

Millions of customers are expected to stop paying AOL for access to their email, as they look to stop the steady decline of subscribers in the US and abroad. AOL has already entered into exclusive negotiations with Neuf Cegetel for their French internet subscribers.

Posted by Jimmy Daniels Posted in: AOL, Internet Access, Layoffs No Comments » August 2006