Acer

Acer Incorporated. (LSE: ACID) (traditional Chinese: 宏碁股份有限公司) is a Taiwanese multinational electronics manufacturer. It owns the largest franchised computer retail chain in Taipei, Taiwan.[2] Acer is the third largest computer manufacturer in the world (by sales) after HP and Dell Inc.[3] and its product lineup includes desktop and mobile PCs (laptops),as well as personal digital assistants (PDAs), servers and storage, displays, peripherals, and e-business services for business, government, education, and home users.
History
Multitech, founded by Stan Shih (施振榮), his wife Carolyn Yeh, and a group of five others in 1976, was renamed Acer in 1987. 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. The global headquarters is in Hsichih City, Taiwan.
Acer purchased Texas Instruments's mobile PC (laptop) division in 1997.
In 2000, Acer spun off its manufacturing operation (as Wistron Corporation) to focus itself on branding business. In deciding to support the sales of its product lines through specific marketing activities that best utilise distribution channels, Acer grew worldwide while its labour force contracted. In 2002, the pan Acer Group employed 39,000 people supporting dealers and distributors in more than 100 countries.[citation needed] Revenues reached US$12.9 billion that year.[citation needed] By 2005, Acer employed 7,800 people throughout the world while maintaining a global sales and service network. Revenues were US$4.9 billion in 2003[1] and US$11.31 billion in 2006. Acer's North American market share slipped over the past few years while the European market share has gone up.[4]
In Europe, Acer mounted an association with the Ferrari Formula 1 Team and the former F1 teams, BAR-Honda team in 2000 and Prost Grand Prix in 2001. They offer a popular line of premium laptops and LCD monitors with Ferrari branding. It has recently broadened the scope of its relationship with Ferrari by announcing it will sponsor the Formula One team until 2008. Acer has recently introduced the Ferrari line of products to North America, and rolled out a Ferrari-branded line of PDA devices.
Acer ranks as the world's No. 3 branded PC vendor behind the Hewlett Packard Company and Dell Inc, recently claiming the No.3 rank from Lenovo[5] More recently, it has surpassed Dell in worldwide notebook shipments, becoming the world's No. 2 branded notebook vendor.[6]
On August 27, 2007, Acer announced plans to acquire U.S. based rival Gateway Inc. for US$710 million. J.T. Wang, the company's chairman, said in a statement that the acquisition "completes Acer's global footprint, by strengthening our U.S. presence."[7] In January 2008, Acer announced that it had acquired a controlling interest of 75% of Packard Bell.
Products
* Desktop computers:
* Notebook computers:
o TravelMate series
o Tablet PC series
o Aspire series
o Extensa series
o Ferrari series (CPUs: Mobile AMD Turion 64)
* Personal digital assistants:
o S Series of Palm OS PDAs
o N Series
* Navigation systems:
o Acer e300 series Travel Companion,[11] with Destinator and NAVTEQ maps.
* Server & Storage:
o Altos series
* Workstations:
o PICA
* Monitors
* Digital Cameras
* LCD Televisions