Mitac International (
According to company earnings reports for December, Mitac's sales grew to NT$47.2 billion (US$1.4 billion) last year, 18 percent higher than company projections. In December, however, sales grew only 2.3 percent over the same time in 1999, indicative of the massive slowdown in PC sales worldwide.
Shares in Mitac dropped 60.7 percent in 2000 from a yearly high of NT$45.2 in February. Yesterday the company's stock finished at NT$20.3 down slightly on the day.
"Our earnings last year are the result of higher sales in a combination of products, workstations, servers, PCs and notebooks," said Justine Liu (
"This year's situation is more complex because of the slow PC market. We plan to focus more on servers, workstations and Internet Appliances this year," she said.
Mitac started as an exclusive manufacturer of PCs but has grown to become a major original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for companies such as Compaq Computer, IBM and Sun Microsystems.
The company also built an R&D laboratory resulting in a new LCD screen product that can be mounted on a compact, vertically standing personal computer. The design won Mitac a lucrative OEM contract from IBM.
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