Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday reported net losses of NT$4.9 billion (US$161.64 million) for last year due to its recognition of intangible asset impairment charges of NT$6.36 billion, mainly for an acquisition made in 2012.
Losses per share for last year were NT$1.62, compared with the earnings per share of NT$0.2 in the previous year, Acer said.
Acer in December last year announced that it had to book the impairment charge in the final quarter after it discovered that iGware Inc — a cloud computing firm it bought in 2012 for US$710 million — was no longer capable of generating cash.
Despite the net losses, Acer's board has approved cash distribution of NT$0.5 per share from its capital surplus, the same as last year.
Excluding the impairment charge, Acer said its net income would have been NT$1.46 billion with earnings per share of NT$0.48, up 141 percent from the NT$603.68 million made in 2015.
Its gross margin reached 10 percent, up 0.57 percentage points from 9.43 percent in 2015, while its operating margin grew 0.15 percentage points to 0.51 percent, compared with the previous year’s 0.36 percent, Acer said.
“Increasing sales contributions from higher-margin products such as gaming PCs helped profitability growth,” an Acer official said by telephone.
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