Rumors continue to persist that Gateway may be acquired by Acer, the Taiwanese computer maker after Acer’s CEO told the Wall Street Journal last week that he wanted to buy a U.S. computer company. Another analyst today said sources indicate it’s Gateway, sending the Irvine company’s shares up 6 percent on Monday.

I had this in the back of my mind when I noticed new numbers from DisplaySearch, a market research firm that tracks flat screens. The report listed the top sellers of laptops worldwide in the 3rd and 4th quarter. Gateway wasn’t in the top 10, trounced by Acer, ASUS, Lenovo and Fujitsu-Siemens. Gateway, said John Jacobs, DisplaySearch’s director of notebook market research, wasn’t even close with only about half the sales of No. 9′s Apple, which had about 1 million unit sales in the fourth quarter.

Gateway even fell 13 percent in unit sales from 3rd quarter to fourth quarter. During the same time, the entire market grew 14 percent.

So, why would Acer want Gateway?

“From a brand recognition perspective. Ping your average consumer and they’re probably going to be a lot more familiar with the Gateway name than the Acer name,” Jacobs said. “That’s a way to get instant access.”

Of the top 10 notebook computer companies, I don’t think Acer could buy Dell, Toshiba, HP or Sony. As for the others, the brands aren’t big in retail.

Gateway has politely declined to comment to me on rumors.

Seriously, though, Jacobs said he hasn’t heard anyone buzzing about any sort of Acer takeover of Gateway and he assures me that he would know. “Our folks in Asia are exceptionally plugged in,” he said.

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