Oh, how the mighty have fallen. If you think back a couple of years, you can probably remember a time when Gateway seemed like a major player in the PC industry. When I was growing up, a kid in my neighborhood had one, Gateway ads ran constantly on TV and they even had a retail store in my town. These days, I don’t hear much about the cow-obsessed company (they’re still technically the third largest PC retailer, though they’ve been losing cash hand over fist)–except when there’s a buyout in the works. You may recall that last year, Gateway rejected a $450 million offer from majority Gateway shareholder and eMachines founder, Lap Shun Hui. Now, the rumor mill is abuzz again about a buyout and this time, Taiwanese vendor Acer is the rumored suitor. A group of ThinkEquity analysts suggests that an acquisition that Acer chairman J.T. Wang has been hinting at as of late is indeed, none other than Gateway. No word yet on how such a buyout would effect those few businesses that still use Gateway machines.

For more on the rumor:
– see this BusinessWeek article