Gateway Inc, which has perfected the art of selling PCs at a loss, has scaled down its ambitions for the year and now expects revenue to be in the range of $4.3bn to $4.5bn, compared with earlier hopes that it could achieve $4.5bn to $5bn.

The Poway, California-based company, squeezed in the battle between industry heavyweights Dell and Hewlett-Packard, said it is cautious about the outlook for the fourth quarter, given economic uncertainty and the holiday selling season.

In the third quarter to September 30, the net loss was $49.6m, down from a loss of $519.7m on revenue of $1.1bn, down from $1.4bn. At the nine-month stage, the loss was $228.5m, down from a loss of $1bn on revenue of $3.1bn, down from $4.9bn.

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