Acer Inc, the world's third-largest notebook-computer supplier, yesterday announced consolidated revenues at NT$318.09 billion (US$9.69 billion) for last year, representing growth of 41.4 percent from a year earlier.
The company's profit after tax was NT$8.48 billion, up 20.9 percent from last year, the company said in a statement.
Acer's earning per share for last year was NT$3.83; operating income was NT$7.65 billion, showing an annual growth of 100.9 percent, it said.
"Acer's results are disappointing both in the operating and bottom-line levels," said Robert Cheng, a Taipei-based analyst with CLSA Asia Pacific Markets. "Slowing demand in Europe and head-to-head competition limited the improvement in the margin."
Fourth-quarter operating income rose 51 percent to NT$2.27 billion from NT$1.5 billion, Acer said.
Fourth-quarter non-operating income fell 80 percent to NT$584 million, according to the statement.
Operating margin, the percentage of sales after production costs and operating expenses, rose to 2.2 percent from 2.1 percent a year earlier and 2.2 percent in the third quarter, the company said.
The "core computer business was strong in the period if [one looks at] operating income," Acer senior public relations officer Henry Wang (
Fewer "investment gains from asset sales in the fourth quarter last year dragged the profit," he said.
This year, the company forecast it would earn NT$400 billion in consolidated revenues, NT$10.8 billion in operating income, and NT$10 billion in profit-after-tax.
"Upon achieving these financial targets for 2006, Acer will set another record high in its 30-year history," the statement read.
Acer unseated Toshiba Corp as the world's third-biggest supplier of notebook computers in the fourth quarter of last year.
The company increased its market share to 12.2 percent from 10 percent a year earlier, according to market research Gartner Inc. Toshiba's share fell to 10.5 percent, while Lenovo Group Ltd (
Domestically, Acer ranked as the second-largest notebook computer vendor in the fourth quarter after Asustek Computer Inc (
Acer was followed by Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba, IDC Taiwan said.
Shares of Acer fell 0.8 percent to close at NT$65.50 yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by