Taiwan's Acer Inc. said it had reached an agreement to acquire Gateway Inc. in a deal that values the U.S. company at about $710 million and pushes Acer past Lenovo Group Ltd. as the world's No. 3 vendor of personal computers.

Let me get this straight; Acer Computer Australia can't afford to give their staff the promised yearly bonus (equivalent to one months pay) because of a failed computer launch they like to call the Aspire T180, but Acer International can afford to buy out another company?!