Acer Inc.
Acer Inc.
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Industry
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Computer hardware
Electronics
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Predecessors
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Multitech
International
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Founded
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1976 (as Multitech)
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Founders
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Stan Shih et al.
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Headquarters
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Xizhi, New Taipei,
Taiwan
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Area
served
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Worldwide
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Key
people
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Stan Shih
(Chairman and
President)
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Products
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Desktops, laptops,
netbooks, servers, smartphones, tablet computers, storage, handhelds,
monitors, televisions, video projectors, e-business
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Subsidiaries
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Acer America Corporation
Acer Computer
Australia
Acer India
Gateway, Inc.
Packard Bell
eMachines
Escom
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Website
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| Acer Building in Oriental Science Park |
In the early 2000s, Acer implemented a new business model, shifting from a manufacturer to a designer, marketer and distributor of products, while performing production processes via contract manufacturers.
In addition to its core business, Acer also owns the largest franchised computer retail chain in Taipei, Taiwan.
Acer's current and former slogan(s)/tagline(s) is "Explore beyond limits" and were "Empowering people" and "Empowering technology", respectively.
History
Acer was founded by Stan Shih (施振榮), his wife Carolyn Yeh, and a group of five others as Multitech in 1976, headquartered in Hsinchu City, Taiwan.
It began with eleven employees and US$25,000 in capital. Initially, it was primarily a distributor of electronic parts and a consultant in the use of microprocessor technologies. It produced the Micro-Professor MPF-I training kit, then two Apple II clones; the Microprofessor II and III before joining the emerging IBM PC compatible market, and becoming a significant PC manufacturer. The company was renamed Acer in 1987.
1990s: creating multinational brand
Considering two consecutive quarters of net losses in Q2+Q3 2011 and realization they are selling too many products; 101 individual notebook, netbook and chromebook SKUs in the United States alone, Acer will cut product lines by two thirds beginning in 2012.
Growth and netbook raise
Acer increased worldwide sales while simultaneously reducing its labor force by identifying and using marketing strategies that best utilized their existing distribution channels. By 2005, Acer employed a scant 7,800 people worldwide. Revenues rose from US$4.9 billion in 2003 to US$11.31 billion in 2006.
Acer's North American market share has slipped over the past few years, while in contrast, the company's European market share has risen.
In the mid-2000s years, consumer notebooks have been almost the sole growth drivers for the PC industry, and Acer's exceptionally low overheads and dedication to the channel had made it one of the main beneficiaries of this trend. Acer grew quickly in Europe in part by embracing the use of more traditional distribution channels targeting retail consumers when some rivals were pursuing online sales and business customers. In 2007 Acer bought Gateway in the USA and Packard Bell in Europe and became the Number 3 world provider of computers and number 2 for notebooks, and achieved significant improvement in profitability. Acer has been striving to become the world`s largest PC vendor, in the belief that the goal can help it achieve economy of scale and garner higher margin. But such a reliance on the high-volume, low-value PC market made Acer exposed when buying habits changed.
2013 re-organization
On November 2013 Chairman and CEO J.T. Wang, and President Jim Wong, both resigned due to the company's bad financial performance. Wang had already been reportedly due to leave Acer at year's end to be replaced by Wong. Acer founder Stan Shih has taken over as board chairman and interim president as the company searches for a new candidate to assume the role of presidency. The position of CEO will be eliminated and its responsibilities transferred to the chairman or president, according to Acer in order to improve decision-making efficiency. On December 23 Acer named Jason Chen, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, as its new president and CEO, effective Jan. 1. Entertainment industry executive and former actress Nancy Hu was named CFO and Spokesperson as of May 1, 2014.
Acquisitions
In 1988, Acer acquired Counterpoint Computers
In 1990, Acer acquired Altos Computer Corporation
On 27 August 2007, Acer announced plans to acquire its US-based rival Gateway, Inc. for US$710 million. Acer's chairman, Jen-tang Wang, stated that the acquisition "completes Acer's global footprint, by strengthening our United States presence". Included in this acquisition was the eMachines brand.
In January 2008, Acer announced that it had acquired a controlling interest of 75% of Packard Bell.
In March 2008, Acer acquired: E-TEN. In 2009, Acer acquired 29.9% of Olidata.
In August 2010, Acer and Founder Technology signed a memorandum of mutual understanding to strengthen their long term PC business cooperation.
In July 2011, Acer Inc. bought iGware Inc. for $320 million to try to enter the potentially lucrative cloud market. iGware creates cloud software and infrastructure tools for devices.
Figures
29 April 2010
- Acer announced revenue in Q1 rose 36 percent year-on-year to NT$162.1 billion (US$5.2 billion) and its net profit increased 63 percent to 3.29 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$104.7 million); 27 percent of revenue comes from the U.S.
- Gianfranco Lanci announced that Acer will launch 4 new smartphones by Q3 2010, and a series of "Internet Devices" by the end of May which will run version 4.0 of its Shell user interface.
- According to Gartner and IDC, Acer now ranks No. 1 worldwide in notebook shipments.
Operations
North America
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| Acer America Headquarters in San Jose |
Acer America Corporation, headquartered in San Jose, California, is a member of the Acer Group. Acer's R&D, engineering, manufacturing and marketing operations in the United States and Canada are handled by Acer America. The U.S. headquarters was opened with a staff of three in 1985, as Multitech Electronics USA, in Mountain View, California. In 1986, the U.S. headquarters was moved to San Jose, California. In September 1990, Acer acquired Altos Computer Systems, one of the top manufacturers of multi-user and networked Unix computer systems for commercial markets. In February 1997, Acer acquired Texas Instruments Mobile Computing business, including the award-winning TravelMate and Extensa notebook lines, making Acer the fourth-leading notebook manufacturer in the United States. Acer America's Canadian office, in Mississauga, Ontario, handles repair of Acer, Gateway, and E-Machine Notebooks and Desktop PCs for Eastern Canada. Acer has several facilities in Temple, Texas including a repair facility, a parts warehouse, and a call center. In the words of its Chief Executive, J.T. Wang, “Building a brand is very different in the US. The investment at the initial stage has to be very big—otherwise there is almost no impact”.
Australia
The Australian subsidiary of Acer is Acer Computer Australia (ACA). The subsidiary was established in 1990, and is currently Australia's third largest personal computer vendor, behind Hewlett-Packard Australia and Dell Australia and New Zealand. Acer Computer Australia has Australia's highest overall market share in notebook PC and tablet PC sales. The company is also Australia's leading PC vendor in government and education markets. Acer Computer Australia has 480 employees as of 2006.
India
Acer's subsidiary in India is Acer India (Pvt) Limited, and was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Acer Computer International, Ltd. in 1999. It is a notable vendor in key segments such as education, desktop computers and low profile notebooks for education. The headquarters are in Bangalore, India.Europe
From the late 90's to mid-2000's Acer had computer factories in Europe, too. The business area was the whole EMEA. In the Netherlands under the name of Acer IMS bv there were two factories: Acer laptop factory in Den Bosch and Acer and IBM desktop factory in Tilburg. Acer had also facilities in Germany under the name of IMS in Ahrensburg and Hamburg.
The factory in Tilburg produced also - in limited quantities - various Acer server models and even TV set top boxes. In their prime the monthly production could reach over 40.000 desktop PCs per month, well rivaling the main Acer factories in USA and Taiwan.
In year 2000 Acer extracted its computer production under the branch of Wistron. Also the Dutch branch Acer IMS bv and the German brand IMS were merged with this. Despite the successful production model developed in the Dutch factories both plants were relocated in 2002. The laptop factory was relocated to mainland China and the desktop factory (after ending the IBM desktop production) was relocated Hungary. Soon the Hungarian factory was also moved to mainland China. Acer is a popular brand in Bulgaria. as well.
Linux
Acer has shipped some of their notebooks and more recently netbooks, with various Linux operating system distributions including Ubuntu, Linpus, Android (in a dual boot environment with Windows XP), and Google Chrome OS. They have also launched a line of smartphones and tablets with Android.
Logo
Acer Inc. logo history
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1987–2001
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2001–2011
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2011–present
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From 1987 until 2001 the company used red-blue logo with diamond in the right side and the A and R were capital letters. On March 8, 2001 a new logo was introduced, in which the Acer "diamond" was abandoned. It was created by Landor Associates. The new logo came out following spun-off of Acer's contract manufacturing business to focus on its brand business. The latest logo that was introduced in 2011 uses a different typeface with more rounded corners and the e doesn't stand out from the other letters anymore. The new logo also uses a different shade of green, which has been dubbed "Acer Green".
Products
Business desktops
- Acer Veriton series
Business notebooks
- Acer TravelMate series
- Acer Extensa series
Chromebooks
- Acer AC700
- Acer C710
- Acer C720 (2GB)
- Acer C720 (4GB)
- Acer C720P
Computer displays
- G Series
- P Series
- H Series
- X Series
- B Series
- V Series
- S Series
- T Series
- D Series
- MO Monitor TV series
Consumer desktops
- Acer Aspire Desktop series
- Acer Aspire Predator series
Consumer notebooks
- Acer Aspire Notebook series
- Acer Aspire Timeline series
- Acer Ferrari products series
- Acer Iconia
Home network solutions
- Acer Clear.fi
Mobile phones
- Acer CloudMobile
- Acer Allegro (WP8)
- Acer Tempo series
- Acer Liquid series
- Acer beTouch
- Acer neoTouch
- Acer Stream
- Acer E110
- Acer DX
- Acer F
- Acer Iconia
- Acer T
- Acer X960
Netbooks
- Acer Aspire One series
- Ferrari One
Nettops
- Acer Aspire Revo
Projectors
- Professional series
- Home series
- Travel series
- Value series
Servers and storage
- Acer server F1 series
- Tower series: T110 F1, T115 F1, T150 F1, T310 F1, T350 F1;
- Rack series: R160 F1, R180 F1, R320 F1, R360 F1, R380 F1, R385 F1, R585 F1;
- Blade series: B2x285 F1, B2x280 F1, B460 F1;
- Gemini series: B1170 F1, B2170 F1, B2170t, B2175 F1
- Home Server Series: H340, H341, H342, Altos Easystore M2
- Acer storage series
- N500 F1, N1600 F1, HNAS3080, GS2040, AMS2100, AMS2300
Tablets
- Acer Iconia Tab series
- Acer Aspire Switch 10. This is a 2-in-1 tablet with detachable keyboard. It was launched in 2014 and runs Windows 8.Acer Aspire Switch 10
Televsion
- AT Series
Other (discontinued devices)
- Digital cameras
- Personal digital assistants
- Automotive navigation systems
- Acer PICA
Brands
- Acer
- eMachines
- Gateway
- Packard Bell
Environmental record
In 2005, Acer published its first environmental report, for which the company used the GRI guidelines. All of Acer’s tier-one suppliers have acquired ISO 14001 certification.
In November 2011, Acer was ranked 12th place out of 15 in Greenpeace’s re-launched Guide to Greener Electronics, with the a score of 2.9 points out of 10. The Guide ranks electronics makers according to their policies and practices to reduce their impact on the climate, produce greener products, and make their operations more sustainable.
Greenpeace criticized the company for not setting out targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as intended in 2010 and for not providing external verification for the GHG emissions it reports for its operations and business travel. It also scored badly on the Products criteria receiving no points on product life cycle while Greenpeace noted that a higher percentage of its products need to meet or exceed Energy Star standards in order for it to score more points.
It received some praise for launching new products which are free from polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and the company informed Greenpeace that the majority of its products will be PVC/BFR free in the near future. Acer also scored well on chemical management for lobbying for restrictions on organo-halogens and was commended for reporting on GHG emissions from its first tier suppliers and investigating its second tier.
In its 2012 report on progress relating to conflict minerals, the Enough Project rated Acer the seventh highest of 24 consumer electronics companies.
Sponsorships
Acer sponsored the BAR-Honda Formula One racing team in the year 2000. In 2001, Acer provided sponsorship to the Prost Grand Prix Formula One team, and the team's Ferrari engines were badged as Acers.
Acer sponsored the Ferrari Formula 1 team from 2003 up to 2012 (Official Supplier since 2006) and its Top Sponsor of FC Internazionale – Milano (Inter Milan) Football Club. From 2007 to 2009 Acer has been Official Supplier of FC Barcelona. On 19 March 2007, Acer announced it will sponsor the Factory Fiat Yamaha Team for the 2007 MotoGP World Championship season. From 2009, Packard Bell (that it is part of Acer Group) is the sponsor of Yamaha Factory Racing Team.
Since 2010 Acer support Army United F.C. the Thai football team of the Thai Premier League.
Acer has been Worldwide TOP Partners for both the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and Singapore Youth Olympic Games. Acer was TOP Partner of the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
On July 19, 2011, Acer formed a professional gaming team. The company currently supports from around the world who represent Acer in games such as StarCraft 2, TrackMania, and FIFA Soccer.
Last updated on 11 October 2014 at 18:22.
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