Acer

Acer was founded as Multitech in 1976 by Stan Shih (Chinese: 施振榮), his wife Carolyn Yeh, and five others in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. The company 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 reorganized 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 versus contract manufacturing businesses, the company spun off the contract business in 2000, renaming it Wistron Corporation. The restructuring resulted in two primary units: brand name sales and contract manufacturing. In 2001, the company sold its manufacturing units BenQ and Wistron in order 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 its existing distribution channels. In January 2005 Gianfranco Lanci became the president. By 2005, Acer employed 7,800 people worldwide. Revenues rose from US$4.9 billion in 2003 to US$11.31 billion in 2006.

In the mid-2000s, consumer notebooks were almost the sole growth drivers for the PC industry, and Acer's exceptionally low overheads and dedication to the channel 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 United States and Packard Bell in Europe, and became the third-largest provider of computers and the second largest for notebooks, achieving significant improvement in profitability. Acer has strived 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. However, such a reliance on the high-volume, low-value PC market made Acer exposed when buying habits changed.

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 the end of the year and was supposed to have been succeeded by Wong. Acer co-founder Stan Shih took over as board chairman and interim president while the company searched for a new president. On 23 December 2013, Acer named Jason Chen, then the vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, as its new president and CEO, effective 1 January 2014.

In September 2018, Acer spun-off its smart gadget unit GadgeTek Inc., which produces Leap Beads, smart prayer beads that track mantras and footsteps.

In 2019, Acer announced the esports social platform PLANET9, which aims to provide game analytics, community-organized competitions, and social experiences.

In October 2020, Acer held the next@acer global online launch event, during which it announced a new real-time translation feature for PLANET9 called SigridWave. This feature uses Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology to transcribe spoken gamer input into text, and applies Neural Machine Translation (NMT) technology to translate the text in real time.

Operations

As of September 2022, Acer has over 7,713 employees worldwide, operating in 40 countries/territories.

Australia

Acer Computer Australia (ACA) was established in 1990, and is currently Australia's third-largest personal computer vendor, behind Hewlett-Packard Australia and Dell Australia and New Zealand. ACA has Australia's highest overall market share in notebook PC and tablet PC sales. The company is also Australia's leading PC vendor in the government and education markets. As of 2006, it has over 480 employees.

The company repairs, assembles and manufacturers laptops and desktops in Sydney.

Europe

Acer's EMEA headquarters are located in Lugano, Switzerland. From the late 1990s to mid-2000s, 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. Acer computers are also assembled in Mingachevir, Azerbaijan.

In 1988, Acer acquired Counterpoint Computers.

In 1990, Acer acquired Altos Computer Corporation.

In 1993, Acer acquired the PC division of Commodore International.

In 1997, Acer acquired Texas Instruments notebook computer business.

Controversy

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Acer refused to join the international community and withdraw from the Russian market. Research from Yale University from 28 March 2022, identifying how companies were reacting to Russia's aggression, identified Acer in the worst category "Digging in", meaning Defying Demands for Exit: companies defying demands for exit/reduction of activities. Acer subsequently reversed its decision and suspended business in Russia. Despite stating that it would suspend business in Russia, a Reuters investigation of customs data found that Acer supplied at least $70.4 million worth of computer hardware to Russia between 8 April 2022 and 31 March 2023 through Acer's wholly owned Swiss-registered subsidiary. Since the shipments occurred outside Taiwan, they did not violate Taiwanese sanctions against Russia.