No 3 US personal computer maker Gateway Inc on Thursday posted a narrower net loss on strong sales of notebook PCs and forecast more progress in the company's long turnaround struggle. "We feel very, very positive about what we have been able to accomplish," President and Chief Executive Officer Wayne Inouye said in a phone interview. "We are on track. We are doing what we said we would do. We are ahead of plan in terms of getting our costs down."
Inouye said the company's overall cost structure has declined by 70 percent from a year ago after Gateway shuttered its own retail stores, laid off thousands of workers and merged with smaller, more profitable PC distributor eMachines.
The Irvine, California-based company reported a net loss of $5 million, or 1 cent per share, compared with the year-earlier quarter's net loss of $172 million, or 51 cents per share.
The latest quarter's loss included restructuring and other one-time charges of $8 million, or 2 cents per share. Excluding these items, the company said it would have reported net income of $3 million, or 1 cent per share.
The year-ago loss included restructuring charges, partially offset by a tax benefit, of around $91 million, or about 27 cents per share. It also reflected preferred stock dividends. Gateway acquired eMachines in March of 2004.
Revenue fell 3 percent to $838 million from $868 million, in line with the Reuters Estimates consensus.