Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s fourth-largest PC vendor, yesterday reported its second quarterly net loss in a row, but said its operating loss in the third quarter had greatly improved from the second quarter.
In the three months that ended on Sept. 30, the company’s net loss was NT$1.1 billion (US$36 million), or a loss of NT$0.43 per share, Acer said in an e-mailed statement.
The figure represented a significant improvement from a net loss of NT$6.79 billion, or a loss of NT$2.57 per share, in the second quarter. On an annual basis, however, that compares with a net income of NT$4.29 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.61, in the third quarter last year, company data showed.
Over the past two quarters, Acer has been working to adjust its inventories and fine-tune its business strategy in the face of declines in netbook and notebook sales because of the impact of tablet devices, such as the iPad.
The company is also undergoing restructuring pains following the departure of a number of key executives, such as former chief executive Gianfranco Lanci, former global marketing vice president Gianpiero Morbello and the former president of its handheld intelligence group, Aymar de Lencquesaing.
On a positive note, the company’s consolidated revenue increased 14.9 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$117.3 billion in the third quarter, although the figure was still nearly 30 percent lower than a year earlier.
“Acer’s third-quarter consolidated revenue grew from the second quarter, with channel inventories significantly reduced to a reasonable level,” the statement said.
Operating loss in the third quarter also dropped 81.4 percent to NT$1.32 billion from NT$7.09 billion in the second quarter, after the company wrote off US$150 million of inventories in Europe and on its account receivables in Spain in the second quarter, as well as earmarking another US$30 million for layoff-related expenses.
“Comparing the two quarters’ operating losses on the same bases, by deducting the one-time sales allowance and senior executive severance fees that took place in the second quarter, the margin of the third-quarter operating loss has improved from the second quarter,” Acer said in the statement.
In the first three quarters of the year, Acer’s consolidated revenue totaled NT$347.2 billion, down 27.7 percent from a year ago. The company said operating losses amounted to NT$6.48 billion in the first three quarters, while net losses were NT$6.71 billion, or a loss of NT$2.55 per share.
The company did not provide a sales guidance or an earnings outlook for the current quarter.
Acer chairman and chief executive J.T. Wang (王振堂), who said in August that the company might not be able to break even this year, may shed some light on the progress of the company's restructuring and any impact from potential supply-chain disruption because of the floods in Thailand on Friday next week during its quarterly conference with investors and analysts.
Acer shares fell 1.24 percent to close at NT$35.80 before the announcement of the third-quarter results. The stock has plunged 60.27 percent since the beginning of the year, compared with the benchmark index’s decline of 19.15 percent during the same period.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
Cryptocurrencies gave a lukewarm reception to US President Donald Trump’s first policy moves on digital assets, notching small gains after he commissioned a report on regulation and a crypto reserve. Bitcoin has been broadly steady since Trump took office on Monday and was trading at about US$105,000 yesterday as some of the euphoria around a hoped-for revolution in cryptocurrency regulation ebbed. Smaller cryptocurrency ether has likewise had a fairly steady week, although was up 5 percent in the Asia day to US$3,420. Bitcoin had been one of the most spectacular “Trump trades” in financial markets, gaining 50 percent to break above US$100,000 and
RSS