Acer

One would wonder how colorful is the Acer company history and what they do exactly in the information and electronics industry.

Acer Incorporated is a world renowned company which is based in Taiwan (Xizhi, New Taipei City). The company has long

established its brand on desktop personal computers, laptop, notebook, tablet computers, storage devices, liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, servers, projectors, and even smart phones. You would recognize it with the name of Acer, Gateway, eMachines, and Packard Bell.

Acer was initially called Multitech when it was first established by Stan Shih, his wife Carolyn Yeh, and a group of five developers in 1976. With a startup capital of $25,000 and eleven employees, they set up an office at Hsinchu City, Taiwan. The new company began designing hand-held electronic games and were also were providing consulting services on microprocessor technologies. It soon evolved to the manufacture of personal computers. Their early products include the Micro-Professor MPF-I training kit and the Apple II clones. The company was incorporated as Acer in 1987, a name which means 'acute' or 'sharp' in Latin.

Acer became the 9th world's biggest computer manufacturers between the period of 1994-1995, completely beating Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, and Dell in the industry. Its total sales hit a staggering record of $3.2 billion in 1994 with a net income of $205 million.

By 1996, Acer took the significant market share in consumer electronics by bringing in low priced video disc players and other inexpensive electronic devices. It expanded its efforts to laptop manufacturing by buying out the mobile PC division of Texas Instruments'. By late 1998, Acer became the top brand in South Africa, Mexico, Thailand, Philippines, and several other emerging markets.

The company revised their business model in early 2000 to become more involved in the design, development, and marketing of products. It transferred its manufacturing operations to the original equipment manufacturers of China under the Wistron Corporation. This restructuring created two units in Acer which are brand name sales and contract manufacturing.

This spin-off strategy resulted to higher company sales in Europe. The company also adopted a more focused "channel" approach to distribution by encouraging a closer working relationship with dealers and distributors. Rather than getting sales from individual consumers, it is generating sales with the help of the channel (dealers and distributors).

By 2003, Acer was able to surpass Japan's Toshiba and NEC to become the world's fifth largest manufacturer of PCs with $4.6 billion in sales. It got the number two spot in PC brand sales in Europe in 2004. Acer acquired the US Company, Gateway, for $710 million in August 2007 which included the eMachines brand. It then established a controlling interest in Packard Bell by January 2008. It is now turning its attention to the opportunities of cloud computing and has announced its plans to acquire iGware Inc. for $320 million last July 2011.

The company is firmly establishing its position for continued growth. Knowing the Acer company history and what they do is revving up our anticipation to the dynamic actions of this industry leader in the future.