Acer Inc.

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.

In 1998, Acer reorganised into five groups: Acer International Service Group, Acer Sertek Service Group, Acer Semiconductor Group, Acer Information Products Group, and Acer Peripherals Group. To dispel complaints from clients that Acer competed with its own products and to alleviate the competitive nature of the branded sales vs. contract manufacturing businesses, In 2000 the company spun off the contract business, renaming it Wistron Corporation. The restructuring resulted in two primary units: brand name sales and contract manufacturing. In 2001 the company got rid of its manufacturing units, BenQ and Wistron to focus resources on design and sales.

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-Organisation

In November 2013 Chairman and CEO J.T. Wang, and President Jim Wong, both resigned due to the company's poor financial performance. Wang had been reportedly due to leave Acer at year end, and was supposed to have been succeeded by Wong. Acer co-founder Stan Shih took over as board chairman and interim president after the departure of Wang and Wong and began to search for new candidates to assume the roles of CEO and president. 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 and joint ventures

Operations

Acer has 7,000+ employees worldwide, operates in 70 countries, and has approximately 95,000 retail locations spread throughout 160+ countries.

North America

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.

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.

Indonesia

PT Acer Indonesia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Acer Inc and distribute their products through their main distributor PT Dragon Computer & Communication. Acer is currently second largest computer vendor in Indonesia. In Q1 2016, Acer recorded >81% market share in Windows tablet in Indonesia.

Europe

Acer's EMEA headquarters are located in Lugano, Switzerland. From the late 90's to mid-2000's Acer had computer factories in Europe. 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 also had facilities in Germany under the name of IMS in Ahrensburg and Hamburg.

Logo

From 1987 until 2001 the company used a red and blue logo with a diamond to the right and the A and R capitalised. 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". Flipping the current logo vertically transforms the logo from Acer to 1976, the year the company (formally know as Multitech International) was founded.

Business desktops

Business notebooks

Chromebooks

Computer displays

Consumer desktop

Consumer notebooks

Enterprise communication

Gaming (Predator)

Notebooks

Desktops

Tablet

Displays

Projectors

IoT Starter Kit

Smartphones

Projectors

Servers and storage

Tablets

Wearables

Virtual Reality Headsets

Brands

Corporate Social Responsibility

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 2012, Acer was ranked 4th place out of 15 in Greenpeace’s re-launched Guide to Greener Electronics, with the a score of 5.1 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.

Acer has been listed on the DJSI’s Emerging Markets Index since 2014 and on MSCI’s Global Sustainability Indexes since 2015.

Sponsorships

Formula One engine results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)