NEC Corp. executives are negotiating the sale of the company"s Packard Bell division, reportedly to eMachines founder Lap Shun "John" Hui. The move would leave NEC without a consumer PC brand, while it continues to supply the European professional market with NEC-branded computers. "NEC is considering an offer, and the process of the sale is underway, but no deal has been completed," NEC spokeswoman Kazuko Andersen said on Friday.
However she refused to confirm a story in the International Herald Tribune which identified Hui as the potential buyer. Hui has been publicly shopping for a PC company in recent weeks. In August, he made an offer to buy the retail arm of Gateway Inc., but the company"s board rejected the deal. Hui made his initial fortune when he founded the entry-level PC vendor eMachines Inc., and sold it to Gateway in 2004 for US$234 million.