MPC Corp. will permanently shut operations in coming months and, effective immediately, layoff 147 employees in Nampa, the company told the state today.
Over the next few months, the company will provide its remaining 51 Nampa employees with varying dates of expected termination, MPC said in a letter provided to the Idaho Department of Labor under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The PC manufacturer, a Micron Technology spinoff, said employees not discharged immediately are being retained for the sole purpose of assisting the company in carrying out liquidation.
“MPC has determined that the state of the credit markets and its current financial condition leaves it with no choice but to liquidate its assets,” the company said in the letter.
MPC told the state that efforts to reorganize under Chapter 11 have proven unsuccessful. The company said it was unable to provide 60 days’ notice for most of the terminations because the decision to cease all business operations and liquidate the company was not reached until just prior to notice.
Management had also determined that advance notice of a possible layoff would have precluded its ability to obtain financing to allow the company to avoid a shutdown. “Unfortunately, MPC was not able to secure the financing it was seeking,” the letter said.
The company also noted that between Dec. 4 and Dec. 12, a substantial portion of MPC’s sales force resigned without prior notice, which made it impossible to continue any viable business operations.
The company leases 340,000 square feet of space at 906 E. Karcher Road in Nampa.
29 Comments
Is it any surprise that MPC's sales force bailed out? What else can you expect when people whose compensation is commission-based have nothing to sell?
Comment By Michael Boss Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 11:46 AM
What will happen to the patent for the Tablet 155C? It is an excellent tablet!
Comment By Joe Spruill Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 12:28 PM
John Yeros has single handedly driven this company out of business. Who in their right mind would purchase Gateway? MPC was a great company that made a quality product and it saddens me to see it close.
Comment By David R. Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 2:03 PM
The fate of Micron PC was sealed the day that Micron Tech took back SpecTek. The other hand of fate was letting Joel Kocher rob the company of millions by transferring into the hosting company that he ran into the ground in Atlanta.
Comment By George Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 2:12 PM
Well George, you can sure count on those crackerjack forensic sleuths down at the Idaho AG's to track down this (and any other w-collar funny business) ;-).
Comment By Bill Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 3:17 PM
It is very sad that this happened to MPC and all its employees. MPC was a very good company with friendly customer service and very good and quick tech support. :(
Comment By Alex Ko Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 3:34 PM
MPC was handling warranty repairs for Gateway. What will happen to all the computers in the warehouse? Our office had a computer with a bad monitor that MPC signed for on October 7th. I'm sure we aren't alone. All the Gateway warranties for the last 3 years were "sold" to MPC. Are they worthless? I hope someone takes action.
Comment By Lisa Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 6:45 PM
My god . What have we done. This outsourcing insanity is killing us! The last american made computer . Gone! How about somebody take that place over and make a laptop that doesn't break! All those gov. contracts they had are up for grabs no? Starting businesses in a smaller scale is the future. I'm tellin ya! Let those employees who ran that place before these jackasses ran it into the ground run it! It will take true talent to run business from now on and if we don't start creating some wealth right here where we are there will be serious trouble. Scale down,make something better. It will work.
Comment By donsevere Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 10:40 PM
Systemax is an american made PC!
Comment By Fred Wednesday, December 31, 2008 @ 9:22 AM
It will be interesting to see what happens as we are a 100% Gateway / MPC shop with several hundred desktop and laptop and tablet computers with a couple of hundred still having warranties that we paid for at the time of purchase - some purchases were made over this past summer - We have been a Gateway customer for 14 years and have always had tremendous support of the Tech and Sales Staff even after Gateway was run into the ground by the former head of AT&T's Business Unit "I think I know how to run a computer company" Jeffrey Weitzen . . . I currently have 21 servers with 24x7x4 warranties that expire in 2011 - I guess my money is gone - ACER also holds a lot of blame for MPC failing during the acquisition of Gateway Business for those that know what was going on with the sale and the transfer of parts and databases . . . Perhaps Acer wanted MPC to fail for a tax write-off as they owned 20% of the company if my memory serves me correctly . . .
Comment By Ray Wednesday, December 31, 2008 @ 3:56 PM
There is a movie called "The Take" by Naomi Klein.
The former employees and every working class
person should watch this movie. Again, the people that actually WORKED at MPC could run this company.
The rapid growth "bottom line" business model is history. Like the dinosaurs. Failing upward is so 2005.
Comment By donsevere Wednesday, December 31, 2008 @ 11:15 PM
If the employees can make a "go" of the business, then they should buy the parts of the business which make it work. Bankruptcy involves the court and the court is trying to get the most money for the creditors, it will listen and decide. The owner of the space at Karcher Road faces a cram down - and he might be interested in providing a short term use at a ridiculously low rate as it is better than the cram down. Nampa and Idaho have programs which can help. Federal help might come from the Small Business Administration.
Look for critical components to doing business - the group of departing salespeople are probably a core issue. So is the money for warranty work (if it is all gone as I suspect, then you have to help past customers with broken machines and broken promises - which can work if you get them to understand the change and what you can do under the new circumstances).
Comment By X-banker Friday, January 2, 2009 @ 11:28 AM
Say what you will about Jeffrey Weitzen. Gateway enjoyed it's highest stock prices ever under his leadership. Friends of Teddy Boy Waitt didn't like Wietzen and begged him to come back and put an end to Gateway's most profitable time in history. Only when Waitt come back did things go sour for Gatway. Things were booming under Weitzen's watch.
Comment By Jack Friday, January 2, 2009 @ 8:34 PM
Hey Jack....you are so delusional I don't really even know how to respond...Jeffrey Weitzen? Are you kidding me? Ted Waitt started the company? Jeffrey was part in parcel why ATT was tits-up and taking on water....Jesus you are stupid..please post/troll on some other forum (from your mom's basement)....
Comment By HughGRection Friday, January 2, 2009 @ 9:50 PM
MPC couldn't pay the shipping companies to ship out the warranty parts. What we were hearing was that they would collect on a bill and then pay UPS/FexEx to ship a delivery or a warranty part.
With many of their contracts being cancelled, they were drying up fast.
Comment By Tony Saturday, January 3, 2009 @ 6:49 PM
It should not have taken a genius to realize this is not a good business climate for MPC to try and swallow Gateway. As I understand it MPC bought G'Way mainly to get their tablet. It might have been a better idea to design a good tablet rather than acquire one.
Comment By Aaron Saturday, January 3, 2009 @ 7:41 PM
DakTech Computers is an American made PC. They have great laptops and desktops with a 7 Year Warranty. Out of Fargo, ND.
Comment By David Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 9:08 AM
My company has already taken a shot when the support stopped, now I wonder how they will handle the driver support. Are all of the drivers going to disappear too?
Comment By Patrick Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 9:11 AM
I worked for Micron in MN back when they really did their own support. Our goal was quality support not tossing parts. It was a sad day when all support was outsourced, the just toss them a part or the shut up reboot along with bad management ideas killed the company. I missed the friends I made in Nampa when I left... I will keep good thoughts for all
Comment By Anna Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 9:50 AM
Well here is my story...
MPC has had my computer at an undisclosed repair facility since 10/14/08.
Where is my computer, and will I be getting it back? Will it be repaired?
I have been trying to get a hold of someone at this company since October. My computer basically has been stolen by this company.
Comment By Aaron Domino Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 4:55 PM
I shipped my computer to MPC for repairs and was told that they were not covered under my warranty. I had to send a check for $661.09 for the repairs to be made. This check was dated 11/10/08. They cashed the check after announcing that they filed for bankruptcy and have not returned my computer or my money. How will I get my money and computer back. I have a college student in need of his computer. It was totally deceitful for them to cash my check after they knew they had filed for bankruptcy.
Comment By Linda Lans Tuesday, January 6, 2009 @ 8:28 PM
This is a hypothetical for discussion only! Someone should start a class action suit against both Gateway and MPC (MPC is protected now, wait till they emerge or two suits). Both companies were negligent in the sale/purchase of the warranty division and failure of due diligence has lead to losses. A class against Gateway for an improper sale of the warranty division was a breach of fiduciary responsibility to those that had in good faith signed up for multi-year warranties. If during discovery Gateway never intended to fulfill those warranties by selling to a company that would most likely fail they should be held in breach.
Comment By Mike Long Wednesday, January 7, 2009 @ 10:46 AM
My son is in college and his laptop won't start. He called me to say he couldn't get any response from MPC. Now I know why. I sympathize with all the employees at MPC who've lost their livelihoods due to mis-management and all the people with noncollectable or unsupported hardware. Not sure who a class action suit would go after but I wonder what type of compensation Gateway and MPC executives received over the past few years as they presided over this train wreck
Comment By Ray Lopez Wednesday, January 7, 2009 @ 12:46 PM
What happens to the warranties? I have over 400 computers and 20 servers most with warranties for another 2+ years.
Comment By Joe Straub Wednesday, January 7, 2009 @ 1:27 PM
Warranties will not be honored. Your money is gone. If you sent in your laptop or pc, it is gone as well. Welcome to America.
Comment By J Thursday, January 8, 2009 @ 1:12 PM
I'm only 2 years into a 3 year replacement/exchange warranty. My MPC laptop's power jack shorted out and burned through the motherboard. It's completely dead and could only be fixed with a about $700 worth of parts. Yesterday, I was on hold with the IT deparment for 2 hours when I started wondering if anyone was even there. Did a web search and learned that that really isn't anyone there. I guess I'm out a $2500 laptop. Filing a lawsuit is probably pointless since they are protected by the chapter 11.
Comment By Heidi Friday, January 9, 2009 @ 2:13 PM
I'm stuck as a self maintainer with over 400 E-155's we bought last summer. Now I'm up a tree with no parts to repair these turkeys! Plus, they have 2 of my machines that are in for repair. Does anyone know where or who, has parts to repair these things?
Comment By Ron Wednesday, January 14, 2009 @ 4:58 PM
MPC tried the same thing with me in September I had the accidental damage replacement thing on my notebook, they said the motherboard was not covered under this program and they wanted $700 plus to repair it.
I believe gateway has an obligation to honor the warranty since they accepted money for the warranty. I also believe they are obligated at least in California to refund a pro rated amount for any extended warranty purchased through gateway.com regardless if they gave away their warranty obligations to MPC in a liability dump plan.
For those who are affected at least contract your state's attorney general's public inquiry unit and ask to have gateway.com barred from doing business in your state.
If enough states start to pursue this perhaps gateway will have to respond to consumers they have ripped off.
Comment By John Wednesday, January 14, 2009 @ 10:19 PM
Gateway doesn't exist anymore. Acer has the consumer line and MPC had the business side. MPC is gone along with your warranties, equipment at their facilities for repair and so on. Don't waste your time.
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