Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s fourth-largest PC vendor by shipments, yesterday said it plans to form a new gaming PC business unit later this month as part of the company’s latest restructuring efforts to fend off competition and to rekindle growth.
The company unveiled the plan in March to revamp its product portfolios and reallocate company resources, as its growth has been decelerating over the past two years.
The notebook maker did not reveal a detailed timeline at the time.
Photo: CNA
“All high-ranking executives have felt the industrial headwinds,” Asustek chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taipei. “The company hopes to fend off challengers through restructuring efforts.”
Shih said the company’s financial performance would reach its lowest point in the second quarter due to slow demand for smartphones and PCs amid product transition.
To fuel growth, Asustek should allocate more resources to develop gaming PCs, taking advantage of the industrial trend, Shih said.
Gaming PCs is becoming a mainstream segment in the PC industry, he said.
“Micro-Star International Co (微星科技) is catching up, as it puts the whole company’s resources into gaming PCs,” Shih said. “Our goal is to widen the company’s lead like we have achieved in the motherboard segment.”
Asustek is to spin off the gaming PC segment from the lukewarm PC business unit.
Upon completion of the restructuring, its system business group would be comprised of three units — a PC unit, a mobile phone unit and a gaming unit.
Asustek also plans to expand to new areas for growth, including the Zenbo service robot series.
The company expects shipments of Zenbo robots to rise significantly in the second half, following its debut early this year, Shih said.
Asustek plans to expand its Zenbo’s target markets to Chinese-speaking areas, primarily China, by the end of September and to English-speaking countries such as the US next year, Shih said.
Zenbo plays a key role in the firm’s long-term plan to build a cloud-computing ecosystem, Shih said.
It enters consumers’ homes and connects to all Asustek’s products, making it the center of “smart home” solutions, he said.
Asustek shareholders yesterday approved distribution of a cash dividend of NT$17 per common share based on the company’s net profit of NT$19.2 billion (US$638 million) last year, or earnings per share of NT$25.9.
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
ASML Holding NV, the sole producer of the most advanced machines used in semiconductor manufacturing, said geopolitical tensions are harming innovation a day after US President Donald Trump levied massive tariffs that promise to disrupt trade flows across the entire world. “Our industry has been built basically on the ability of people to work together, to innovate together,” ASML chief executive officer Christophe Fouquet said in a recorded message at a Thursday industry event in the Netherlands. Export controls and increasing geopolitical tensions challenge that collaboration, he said, without specifically addressing the new US tariffs. Tech executives in the EU, which is
RSS