Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday reported a net profit of NT$2.74 billion (US$98 million) for last quarter, marking the PC brand’s highest quarterly earnings in a decade.
That represented growth of 391 percent from NT$558 million a year earlier.
On a quarterly basis, net profit jumped about 37 percent from NT$1.99 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
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Earnings per share surged to NT$0.91 last quarter from NT$0.18 a year earlier and NT$0.67 the previous quarter.
Consolidated revenue reached NT$71.56 billion in the first quarter, up 46.5 percent year-on-year.
Gross profit was NT$8.31 billion, up 67.9 percent year-on-year.
Operating income was NT$2.81 billion, “with a historically high first-quarter margin of 3.9 percent,” a news release by Acer said.
Continued strong demand for notebook PCs contributed to Acer’s robust first-quarter figures.
The distance-learning market in the US, Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia is going strong, while the company’s first-quarter Chromebook sales grew 141 percent year-on-year, a report by the Chinese language Commercial Times said.
Acer’s investment in e-sports has also paid off, with its e-sports laptops, desktops and monitors growing 87 percent year-on-year, the report said.
Acer also announced yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it would be selling 4.6 million shares of its subsidiary Highpoint Service Network Corp (海柏特).
According to the Chinese-
language Web site cnyes.com, Highpoint is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in the fourth quarter of this year.
It aims to list on the emerging market index in the second quarter of next year and move to the Taiwan Stock Exchange in the second quarter of 2023, if everything goes well, cnyes.com said.
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
US sports leagues rushed to get in on the multi-billion US dollar bonanza of legalized betting, but the arrest of an National Basketball Association (NBA) coach and player in two sprawling US federal investigations show the potential cost of partnering with the gambling industry. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and an NBA Hall of Famer, was arrested for his alleged role in rigged illegal poker games that prosecutors say were tied to Mafia crime families. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was charged with manipulating his play for the benefit of bettors and former NBA player and
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