Packard Bell closes shop, exits US PC market

The parent company of Packard Bell, NEC, is pulling the beleaguered PC maker out of the U.S. PC market and laying off 80% of its workforce in an attempt to stem the billions of dollars of losses the company has sustained over the past few years. Packard Bell, once a cornerstone of the retail PC industry in the United States, has fallen on hard times in recent years as higher-quality PCs have come down in price. Long criticized for the cheap nature of its U.S. products, the company lost over $1 billion in both 1997 and 1998.

"The Packard Bell brand will disappear in the U.S.," said a Packard Bell spokesperson.

Looking forward, company executives hope to sell consumer PCs on the Internet. And Packard Bell intends to continue selling its computers in Europe