Acer owns Gateway & eMachines.
My nephew & I have Gateway laptops, we bought them the same day,
my nephew got both of them with his employee discount.
We've had them a little over a year with no problems.
I know others that are happy with their Acers.
Acer had a bad reputation, but they've made a lot of improvements.
My first computer was an eMachines (built before Acer bought them out),
it's still going strong, I gave it to my sister.