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LOS ANGELES (AP) - Taiwan-based Acer Inc. will acquire Gateway Inc. for $710 million in a deal designed to give the long-struggling U.S. computer maker the size it needs to compete against larger players, the companies announced Monday. The deal will push the combined company past China's Lenovo Group Ltd. to become the world's third-largest vendor of personal computers, behind Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. With the acquisition, Acer will absorb a company that made a splash when it was founded in 1985 in an Iowa farmhouse. |