Acer Inc (
Acer hopes to become a worldwide powerhouse in information technology services, software and sales of its brand-name products, including personal computers, notebook PCs, personal digital assistants and other computer-related products.
"Acer operations have just become too big and too complex," chairman Stan Shih (
The company also manufactures personal computers and notebook PCs for multinationals such as International Business Machines Corp (IBM). Acer products compete with its own customers, often creating friction.
In response, Acer has separated the contract manufacturing arm of the company into a separate business unit called Wistron. Acer plans to sell off over half its stake in Wistron this year. It plans to lower its total holding in Wistron to around 30 percent by the end of 2003.
Acer has already shifted some notebook-PC orders from Wistron to Compal Electronics Inc (
The company expects sales to reach NT$101 billion this year, up by around 30 percent year on year and putting it in the same league as other top contract manufacturers in Taiwan, such as Quanta Computer Inc (
Wistron expects that new orders from companies such as Dell Computer Corp (for computer parts) and Microsoft Inc (for Xbox game consoles) will replace orders that formerly came from Acer.
Including subsidiary companies, executives at Wistron said the group could see sales as high as NT$120 billion to NT$130 billion. AOpen Inc, Wistron Newave Corp, Wistron Nexus Inc, Anextek Global Inc, Wistron Software Corp (宏創) and Playcoo Corp are all members of the Wistron group of companies.
Last year, Wistron had net sales of NT$74.8 billion (US$2.2 billion), while the Wistron Group had combined sales of NT$96 billion, according to the company.
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