One of the most popular brands in the segment of computer equipment can be called Acer. Country of origin - Taiwan. The economy of this state is largely built around the IT industry. But among the many computer companies in Taiwan, Acer occupies a special place. The manufacturer is the largest on the island and one of the leaders in the global computer market.
Start of activity
The company traces its history from one of the many small Taiwanese firms of the 1970s. It was Multitech International, which was founded by Stan Shea in 1976. Starting capital was only 25 thousand dollars. Initially, the basis of the production line was microelectronics. The company did not stand out among competitors. But Stan Shi was able to see great prospects in the nascent personal computer market. Thanks to his instinct, the company launched a mass production of IBM-compatible PCs.
Having made this the first in Taiwan, the company began to rapidly increase its turnover. The first model was the MicroProcessor-I computer, created in 1981. Then, in 1982, the eight-bit MicroProcessor II was created. During these years, the basic principle of the future Acer as a manufacturing company operating in the middle price segment was laid. The company chose inexpensive, but not the cheapest cars as its niche, which were distinguished by good build quality and developed functionality.
Outside Taiwan
Already since 1985, the company created representative offices in other countries, and the first were Germany and Japan. At the same time, various divisions called Acer began to appear in the company. So, in 1984, the Acer Peripherals division was created, which later turned into a separate BenQ brand.
Habitual name
And since 1988, the entire corporation began to be called Acer Group. You can see the synthesis of European and Asian in the name Acer. The country of origin is a representative of Asian culture, so the name has a poetic translation of "sharp-sighted" or "swift". But the word "acer" is Latin, since the main market is in Europe and America.
Acer gradually bought up many computer manufacturers in the country, while retaining their old brands. This is one of the features of the company. Despite the great popularity of its own brand, it does not seek to absorb sub-brands, but rather develops them in every way. For example, Acer owns one of the largest manufacturers of matrixes for liquid crystal monitors - AU Optronics.
Acquisition of foreign firms
Soon after the renaming, the company broke out of the country of origin. Acer Group in the same 1988 acquired the American company Counterpoint Computers, which was a major developer of computer equipment in the United States. And in 1989, Acer entrenched itself in Europe, acquiring the Dutch Kangaroo Computer BV, which became the basis of the corporation's European production facilities. In the same year, Acer, together with a major US manufacturer Texas Instruments, created a joint venture that produces memory chips for PCs. In 1990, the corporation took over Altos Computer Systems, a company specializing in the creation of computer multi-user systems. Since 1992, the company’s headquarters moved to Singapore due to more favorable legislation and business climate.
The growth of Acer's technological potential can be seen by the fact that in 1994 even the legendary Intel acquired a license to use one of the technologies developed by the corporation.
Reorganization
Incredibly fast growth in the late 1990s led to the emergence of a bulky and difficult to control mechanism. Therefore, in 2000, a major restructuring was carried out, in which the corporation was divided into three industrial groups Acer, Wistron and BenQ. This made it possible to optimize and concentrate under one management each of the areas of the company's activity, which became known as Pan Acer Group. This reorganization was a fundamental step that allowed the corporation to withstand the growing competition of Chinese manufacturers and future crises.
A crisis
Any growth has its limits and the industry crisis that struck in 2001 seriously hit the Pan Acer Group. Earnings fell more than 20%, and the price of stocks fell almost to a minimum. However, Stan Shea managed to maintain investor confidence and the next year the company significantly exceeded the pre-crisis 2000 figures. In the new millennium, Acer began to pay more and more attention to such a promising market as laptops. Becoming the largest laptop manufacturer in the country, Acer gradually made this direction the main, moving personal computers to second place.
This is largely due to the fact that laptops gradually almost overtook the PC in performance, significantly exceeding ergonomics. Therefore, the direction of the company to a significant extent was determined precisely by the development of the computer equipment market as a whole.
Post-crisis years
In 2005, the new president of the corporation was Gianfranco Lanci, who was previously the head of the Italian, and later the pan-European representative office of the company. In 2007, the corporation included such major brands as Packard Bell, Gateway and eMachines. They all retained their own names. And after the purchase of E-Ten, the corporation entered the market of smartphones that began to be sold under the Acer brand, since an excessive number of trademarks could adversely affect sales.
At the moment, one of the most popular brands of computer equipment is Acer. Taiwan, the manufacturing country, is associated with higher product quality for many users than in mainland China. In the case of Acer, this is true. The brand still maintains an optimal balance between quality and price, while keeping up with competitors in terms of manufacturability.