Gateway has restated its financial results for the first, second, and third quarter of 2000 and revised its reported results for the fourth quarter of 2000. In addition, Gateway today also unveiled a number of actions it is taking to better position the company for enhanced growth and profitability in the face of the current demand and macroeconomic realities. For now, we need to prioritize our business initiatives against the present economic realities.
Tough times call for tough decisions.
We are confident the steps we are taking today will make us a stronger company as a result, which will benefit our employees, clients and shareholders. Softer sales have caused inventories of our competitors to swell, and have touched off an aggressive pricing environment that will have negative consequences for the PC sector for the next six months. As a result of these actions and other restructuring steps, Gateway will reduce its worldwide employment ranks in the first quarter by more than 10 percent. In response to the continuing deterioration in consumer demand, Gateway has revised further its year 2001 expectations. Full-year 2000 results were impacted by a sharp, unexpected and continuing reduction in consumer demand that began during the holiday period.