Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s fourth-largest PC brand by shipments, on Thursday reported an increase of 40.81 percent in sales last month from August, but the figure was down 5.91 percent from a year earlier.
The Taipei-based company posted NT$37.61 billion (US$1.28 billion) in unconsolidated revenue last month, compared with NT$26.71 billion in the previous month and NT$39.97 billion made in the same period last year, according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Last month’s figure was released on an unconsolidated basis, which Acer said did not reflect its real business performance for the month.
The company is expected to provide consolidated numbers later this month.
On Thursday, two international market researchers said in their latest industry reports that Acer had continued to see falling shipments and market share last quarter, which dragged down the firm’s global ranking by one notch to No. 4.
ANALYSTS REPORTS
Gartner Inc said Acer shipped 8.63 million PCs last quarter, down 10.2 percent from a year earlier, with a global market share of 9.9 percent, while IDC said Acer posted a 9.6 percent decline in shipments to 8.41 million units for the quarter with a global market share of 9.6 percent.
The declining shipments were reflected in the company’s unconsolidated quarterly sales, which fell 10.46 percent sequentially and 14.96 percent annually to NT$86.97 billion, according to Acer.
In the first nine months of this year, Acer posted NT$280.59 billion in unconsolidated sales, down 6.63 percent year-on-year, the company’s filing showed.
MARKET PERFORMANCE
Shares in Acer rose 1.1 percent to NT$27.5 yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX’s 0.2 percent decline.
However, the stock has fallen 21.65 percent so far this year, underperforming the benchmark index’s 5.16 percent rise, data from the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.
On Aug. 17, Acer chairman and chief executive officer Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) said the company would likely have a flat performance in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.
He also projected a sequential growth of 5 percent to 10 percent in the fourth-quarter revenue due to Windows 8 product launches.
However, Barclays Capital analyst Kirk Yang (楊應超) said in a note to clients on Sunday that Acer would still see slower PC sales in the fourth quarter because of weaker demand in the US and Europe, as well as the Middle East and Africa.
NEW VP
As part of the company’s efforts to effectively lower channel inventory in Europe and stabilize EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) operations, Acer on Wednesday announced it had named Amin Mortazavi as the vice president for the company’s operations in the Middle East and Africa.
Prior to joining Acer, Mortazavi had worked for Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) for the past 12 years and spent eight years of that in HP’s Dubai operation. He was most recently a general manager at the US firm’s imaging and printing business unit.
Mortazavi will report directly to Oliver Ahrens, president of Acer EMEA, according to a company’s statement.
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