Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s second-largest PC brand, yesterday said it would pay more than NT$300 million (US$9.44 million) to China’s Founder Group (北大方正集團) to license the latter’s trademarks, intellectual property and other intangible assets and to manage Founder’s branded-PC business in China.
The company disclosed the amount of the payment in a stock exchange filing after the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported earlier yesterday that Acer would spend US$70 million to license the branded-PC business for seven years.
“We can’t comment on the details, as the licensing agreement hasn’t taken effect yet,” the filing said.
Late on Wednesday, Acer announced that it would take over the management of Founder’s branded-PC business by taking over its Chinese partner’s planning, marketing and supply chain management, with the Shanghai-based PC maker operating Acer’s after-sales service in China.
The filing, which follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties in late May in Beijing, didn’t disclose the licensing figure, nor the duration of the partnership.
As well as its own-brand business, Acer has been selling products under another three other brand names after acquiring Gateway Inc, eMachines and Packard Bell over the past three years to boost its market share in the US and Europe.
The licensing agreement makes Founder Acer’s fifth PC brand.
“[The partnership] will enhance the core competitiveness of Acer in the Chinese service sector, including widening the coverage of its service network and allow Acer to provide a faster service at a lower cost,” the statement said.
Under the deal, Acer will utilize Founder’s comprehensive channel network to extend its foothold in the remote Chinese cities, rural markets and the commercial market segment, especially small and medium-sized businesses. However, Founder will continue to handle the businesses related to large state-owned enterprises, governmental clients and clients of some other particular sectors directly, the statement said.
Acer said the deal would bring in total revenues of US$2.5 billion in China next year, up from this year’s US$1.5 billion. China contributed 5 percent to Acer’s total revenues in the first quarter — a figure unchanged from the same period last year, according to the company’s statistics.
Acer had 13 percent of the global computer market in the second quarter, trailing Hewlett-Packard Co’s 17.4 percent, according to Gartner Inc.
Acer’s rank in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to climb to No. 2 with 12.3 percent of the market as a result of the Founder partnership, the statement said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last