Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s second-largest notebook PC brand, yesterday said it expected revenue to drop 5 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months on seasonality and inventory clearance.
The decline is the result of efforts by the firm to restructure its management team, chief financial officer Tu Che-min (杜哲民) told an investor conference.
Acer’s consolidated revenue in the first quarter hit NT$127.8 billion (US$4.5 billion), representing a 14.3 percent decline quarter-on-quarter and a fall of 21 percent year-on-year.
The company last week made Jim Wong (翁建仁) its new corporate president, replacing Gianfranco Lanci, who was dismissed by the board last month — a move that shocked the IT industry and sent the company’s shares tumbling.
Acer maintained its forecast that the company’s PC shipments would decline 10 percent this quarter, bucking forecasts from other notebook contract makers that have predicted rising shipments in the three months ending June.
“We are setting a more conservative target as we just introduced a new management team this quarter,” chairman J.T. Wang (王振堂) told investors.
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s second-largest notebook PC contract maker, said on Tuesday its notebook shipments would grow by 10 percent.
Smaller makers Wistron Corp (緯創) and Inventec Corp (英業達) said on Wednesday shipments would rise in the low double digits and 10 percent, respectively. Pegatron Corp (和碩) also projected on Wednesday that its shipments of notebooks would increase 20 percent to 30 percent in the current quarter. Acer posted its lowest quarterly profit in more than six years after slowing demand for low-cost notebooks resulted in missed targets and prompted its board to fire Lanci.
First-quarter net income declined 64 percent to NT$1.19 billion, from NT$3.29 billion a year earlier.
Earnings per share were NT$0.45 in the first quarter, while operating profit, which comprises income from its primary business of designing and selling electronics, fell 56 percent to NT$1.93 billion.
Acer shares closed flat at NT$51 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday before the investor conference. Its stock has dropped 43.4 percent this year, compared with a 1.5 percent decline in electronics stocks as a whole.
Separately, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 6 PC brand, on Wednesday posted first quarter net income of NT$3.4 billion, or NT$5.5 a share, down 15 percent from the fourth quarter. Its revenue also dropped 12 percent to NT$73.9 billion.
Asustek’s manufacturing arm Pegatron plunged into the red by posting a net loss of NT$559 million, or minus NT$0.25 a share, in the first quarter of this year on lower notebook shipments and rising costs. Revenue declined 19 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$85.6 billion.
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