Acer Inc (宏碁) is mulling merging its subsidiary Weblink International Inc (展碁) into its Taiwanese operational branch in a bid to shorten the product distribution process and improve the firm’s operational efficiency, a company executive said yesterday.
“The decision is not yet final, but we will certainly let Weblink share more operational responsibility with Acer’s Taiwanese branch,” Acer Taiwan operations president and Weblink president Dave Lin (林佳璋) said.
Weblink, established in 1997, is the nation’s second-largest distribution agent for software and information technology products. The company serves as a bridge between information technology vendors and local retailers.
Weblink’s clients include Acer, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp. It has more than 6,000 partner retailers nationwide.
When Acer Taiwan operations president Towny Huang (黃鐘鋒) retired from the post, the company on Sept. 1 said Lin would take over the position while continuing to lead Weblink.
Lin said he plans to integrate the resources of Acer’s Taiwan branch and Weblink to improve operational efficiency amid intensified competition in the market.
“Acer either plans to merge Weblink into Acer Taiwan or authorize more distribution rights to Weblink,” Lin said.
Neither of the two options would lead to job losses at Acer Taiwan or Weblink, he added.
Weblink only distributes Acer’s notebooks and desktop computers in Taiwan, but the company plans to allow Weblink to distribute all its products, including its projectors, monitors and Internet of Things products, he said.
That would speed up the distribution process and increase operational efficiency, helping Acer to continue to expand its domestic market share, he added.
Lin said Acer’s market share in Taiwan this quarter is more than 23 percent, with sales exceeding the company’s forecast.
“This quarter’s sales performance is better than the combined performance in the first half of this year,” Lin said.
He said he foresees Acer’s market share climbing by 1 percentage point to 24 percent next quarter and sales could remain at a similar level or grow next quarter on the back of the upcoming launches of new notebooks in the middle of next month.
The new notebooks include the Swift 7, the world’s first laptop less than 1cm thick, the company said.
Acer shares rose 0.35 percent to close at NT$14.45 in Taipei trading yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX, which lost 0.07 percent.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”