Mike Hammond, Co-founder of Gateway Computers, Died at 53

  Business

Mike Hammond or Michael D. Hammond was born on November 28, 1961, in Des Moines, and died on October 29, 2015.

He was an American computer executive, co-founder of Gateway Computers.

Mike, who did not graduate from college, worked as a diesel mechanic before going to work as a salesman for a Des Moines computer shop.

His parents were Merlin Hammond and the former Annette Frazier. Mr. Hammond.

When Mike left Gateway he founded Dakota Muscle, a company in North Sioux City that restored and repaired classic cars.

Hammond first started in an Iowa farmhouse and became known for shipping products in boxes with a spotted cow design.

Ted Waitt, a friend he met at the University of Iowa football game, and himself in their early 20s when they started Gateway in 1985, only 2 years after they had met, initially working out of Ted’s family farm just outside Sioux City.

Gateway’s products shipped in distinctive cowhide-patterned boxes.

When they first started, the company was originally called Gateway 2000, which sold computer parts before developing a line of personal computers and selling them directly to consumers, they shipped cartons recognizable by their black-and-white spotted design resembling the hide of a Holstein cow.

The pair gain reputation for high-quality provider of low-cost equipment, Gateway grew quickly into a Fortune 500 company, employing more than 10,000 people globally and emerging as a rival to Dell in the direct-to-consumer computer market.

The company eventually moved its headquarters to North Sioux City, S.D.

He soon started opening retail stores to augment its direct-to-consumer strategy.

Since 2000, the company has had 242 retail shops, called Gateway Country Stores, across the United States; in 2002, the company reported about $4.2 billion in net sales.

In 2007, Gateway, which by then had moved its corporate office again, to Southern California, was sold to Acer, a Taiwanese company, for $710 million.

The former Lisa Hunt, his wife, whom he married in 2011, but she died due to cancer.

He left behind his son, Michael; a daughter, Jessica; a brother, Mark; a sister; and four grandchildren.

Mike Hammond passed away at 53 years old at his home in Sioux City, Iowa.