Lap Shun Hui, former owner of eMachines Inc., bought the Packard Bell European operations of Japanese computer maker NEC Corp., the company said Monday.
Companies controlled by Hui bought Packard Bell BV, which sells personal computer and home entertainment products and services in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in July the possibility of a Hui buy and said the deal could be worth close to $90 million.
Hui made a name for himself in the U.S. computer industry in 2002, when he invested about $160 million in then-struggling Irvine-based eMachines and took the company private.
He’s cofounder of South Korea’s Korea Data Systems, one of two companies that started eMachines in 1998.
In 2003, Hui sold eMachines to Gateway Inc. for $290 million in cash and stock.
Gateway has struggled of late. In August, Hui, which has a roughly 5% stake in the company, made public a $450 million bid for Gateway’s retail business and also offered to buy the entire company.
A combination of Packard Bell and Gateway would have given Hui a company that covered much of the globe.
Gateway rejected Hui’s offer.
With NEC, Hui gets a company that has been extending its reach into digital home electronics, such as digital music players and DVD players.
Packard Bell brings in about $1.1 billion in business and consumer sales annually in Europe, according to Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
NEC split its business PC operations from Packard Bell in 2005 after suffering losses. The company employs about 800 workers.
The company sold computers in the U.S. under the Packard Bell brand name in the late 1990s, but pulled the plug on the U.S. market in 2000.
Packard Bell had struggled with an image of poor quality in the U.S., but continues to have respect in Europe and in other regions.
NEC said Hui “has extensive experience in the consumer personal computer business and is well positioned to facilitate the future growth of Packard Bell’s business.”
