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Peter Holden
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It wasn’t too long ago that Asustek was muted to be discussing a takeover of its struggling local rival, HTC after its own mobile division posted a profit. However, the takeover rumour was strongly refuted by HTC shortly after becoming public news. Today, we have Acer’s CEO, Jason Chen, shooting down talk of a merger between itself and Asustek, stating that the joining of the two companies would violate Taiwan’s Fair Trade laws.
A merger between Acer and Asustek would result in a combined market share of over 70% in Taiwan, creating an unhealthy monopoly in the eyes of the government’s regulatory bodies.
That being said, Acer’s CEO isn’t against the idea of the company being taken over by someone. Acer’s stock price has plummeted by 50% since April, and the company made just $5.4 million in profit for the first half of 2015 compared to $15 million the previous year. The trend is continuing, because July’s revenue saw a year-on-year decline of 33%.
All of this makes Acer a target for a hostile takeover, something that Acer founder, Stan Shih, actually welcomes as he believes the buyer could end up buying an empty shell due to the existing management quitting Acer. Whether it’s merely bluster or shrewd business sense, it’s clear that Acer’s situation could result in significant changes ahead for the Taiwanese manufacturer, although a merger with local rival Asustek would appear to be off the cards.
Source: DigiTimes
Via: PhoneArena
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