Acer Inc.

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For other uses, see Acer (disambiguation).

Acer Inc.

Headquarters in New Taipei, Taiwan

Native name

Type

Public

Traded as

LSE: ACID TWSE: 2353

Industry

Computer hardware
Electronics

Predecessor

Multitech International

Founded

1976 (as Multitech)

Founder

Stan Shih et al.

Headquarters

Xizhi, New Taipei, Taiwan

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Stan Shih
(Chairman and President)

Products

Desktops, laptops, netbooks,servers, smartphones, tabl

et computers, storage,handhelds, monitors,
televisions, video projectors,e-business

Revenue

US$10.52 billion (2014)[1]

Net income

US$11.36 million (2014)[1]

Number of

7,384 (2013)[1]

employees

Subsidiaries

Acer America Corporation

Acer Computer Australia
Acer India
Gateway, Inc.
Packard Bell
eMachines
Escom

Slogan

Explore beyond limits

Website

Acer.com

Acer Inc. (/esr/; Chinese: ; pinyin: Hngqi Gfn Yuxin Gngs, lit. Hongqi
Corporation) (stylized as acer, or formerly as acer) is a Taiwanese multinational hardware and
electronics corporation specializing in advanced electronics technology and is headquartered
in Xizhi, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Acer's products include desktop and laptop PCs, tablet
computers, servers, storage devices, displays, LED, LCD and plasma televisions, smartphones and
peripherals. It also provides e-business services to businesses, governments and consumers. In
2014 Acer was the fourth-largest personal computer vendor in the world.[2] 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. [3] In

addition to its core business, Acer owns the largest franchised computer retail chain in Taipei,
Taiwan.[4]
Contents
[hide]

1 History
o

1.1 1990s: creating multinational brand

1.2 Growth and netbook raise

1.3 2013 re-organization

2 Acquisitions

3 Figures

4 Operations
o

4.1 North America

4.2 Australia

4.3 India

4.4 Indonesia

4.5 Europe

5 Linux

6 Logo

7 Products
o

7.1 Business desktops

7.2 Business notebooks

7.3 Chromebooks

7.4 Computer displays

7.5 Consumer desktops

7.6 Consumer notebooks

7.7 Home network solutions

7.8 Mobile phones

7.9 Netbooks

7.10 Nettops

7.11 Projectors

7.12 Servers and storage

7.13 Tablets

7.14 Television

7.15 Other (discontinued devices)

8 Brands

9 Environmental record

10 Sponsorships

11 Pop Up Store in Paris

12 See also

13 References

14 External links

History[edit]
Acer was founded by Stan Shih (), 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 MicroProfessor 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[edit]

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.[5]

Growth and netbook raise[edit]

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 [6] 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.[7]
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.[8] 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.[9] But such a reliance on the high-volume, low-value PC market made Acer exposed when
buying habits changed.

2013 re-organization[edit]
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.[10][11][12] 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.[13] Entertainment industry executive
and former actress Nancy Hu was named CFO and Spokesperson as of May 1, 2014. [14]

Acquisitions[edit]
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".[15] 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.[16]
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.[17] iGware creates cloud software and infrastructure tools for devices. [18]

Figures[edit]
29 April 2010[19]

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. [20]

Operations[edit]
North America[edit]

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 awardwinning 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 bigotherwise there is almost no impact. [21]

Australia[edit]
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[edit]
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.

Indonesia[edit]

PT Acer Indonesia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Acer Inc and distribute their products through their
main distributor PT Dragon Computer & Communication.

Europe[edit]
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.[22][23] Acer had also facilities
in Germany under the name of IMS in Ahrensburgand 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.[24] Soon the Hungarian factory was also moved to mainland
China.[citation needed] Acer is a popular brand in Bulgaria as well.

Linux[edit]
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[edit]
Acer Inc. logo history

19872001
20012011
2011present

From 1987 until 2001 the company used a red and blue logo with a diamond to the right and the A
and R capitalized. 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 the spin-off of
Acer's contract manufacturing business to focus on its brand business. The latest logo, introduced in
2011, uses a different typeface with more rounded corners and the e no longer stands out. The new
logo also uses a different shade of green, which has been dubbed "Acer Green".

Products[edit]
Business desktops[edit]

Acer Veriton series

Business notebooks[edit]

Acer TravelMate series

Acer Extensa series

Chromebooks[edit]

Acer AC700

Acer C710

Acer C720 (2GB)

Acer C720 (4GB)

Acer C720P

Computer displays[edit]

G Series

P Series

H Series

X Series

B Series

V Series

S Series

T Series

D Series

MO Monitor TV series

Consumer desktops[edit]

Desktop Acer Aspire Predator

Acer Aspire Desktop series

Acer Aspire Predator series

Consumer notebooks[edit]

Acer Aspire Notebook series

Acer Aspire Timeline series

Acer Ferrari products series

Acer Iconia

Home network solutions[edit]

Acer Clear.fi

Mobile phones[edit]

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[edit]

Netbook Acer Aspire One Ultra-Thin 522

Acer Aspire One series

Ferrari One

Nettops[edit]

Acer Aspire Revo

Projectors[edit]

Professional series

Home series

Travel series

Value series

Servers and storage[edit]

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[edit]

Acer Iconia Tab W5

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.

Television[edit]

AT Series

Other (discontinued devices)[edit]

Digital cameras

Personal digital assistants

Automotive navigation systems

Acer PICA

Brands[edit]

Acer

eMachines

Gateway

Packard Bell

Environmental record[edit]
In 2005, Acer published its first environmental report, for which the company used the GRI
guidelines.[25] All of Acers tier-one suppliers have acquired ISO 14001 certification. [26]
In November 2011, Acer was ranked 12th place out of 15 in Greenpeaces 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.[27]
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. [27]
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.[27]
In its 2012 report on progress relating to conflict minerals, the Enough Project rated Acer the seventh
highest of 24 consumer electronics companies. [28]

Sponsorships[edit]
Acer sponsored the BAR-Honda Formula One racing team in the year 2000.[29] In 2001, Acer
provided sponsorship to the Prost Grand Prix Formula One team, and the team'sFerrari 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.[30] On 19 March 2007, Acer announced it would sponsor
the Factory Fiat Yamaha Team for the 2007MotoGP World Championship season. Since 2009,
Packard Bell (part of Acer Group) has been the sponsor of the Yamaha Factory Racing Team. [31]
Since 2010 Acer has supported Army United F.C., a football team in 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. Players from around the world represent
Acer in games such as StarCraft 2, TrackMania, and FIFA Soccer.[32]

Pop Up Store in Paris[edit]

November 2014 Acer has organised a hi profile Pop Up Store at the Cremerie de Paris part of the
historic Htel de Villeroy. Many actors or television people like lie Semoun orSandrine Qutier have
attended the opening event that attracted internatonal media coverage. [33][34][35][36]