Acer CEO Chen: There is no merger planned with Asus
Acer CEO Jason Chen quickly shot down market talk of a merger between Asus and Acer by noting that the combined market share of the two tech firms is 70% in Taiwan. Thus, a merger between the two firms would violate Fair Trade laws in the country. Acer founder Stan Shih said a few days ago, that he would be open to a takeover of his company in light of its dropping stock price.
Acer's stock price has dropped by 50% since April. For the first six months of this year, the company reported a net profit of $5.4 million USD versus a profit of $15 million USD reported during the same period a year earlier. For July, revenue declined 33% year-over-year.
While Shih did say that he would welcome a takeover of his company, his comments were an empty gesture. He added that anyone buying Acer would end up paying a lot of money for an empty shell since current management would quit, meaning that the acquiring company would have paid a lot of money for something of no value.
"U.S. and European management teams usually are concerned about money, their CEOs only work for money. But Taiwanese are more concerned about a sense of mission and emotional factors."-Stan Shih, founder, Acer
While Shih did say that he would welcome a takeover of his company, his comments were an empty gesture. He added that anyone buying Acer would end up paying a lot of money for an empty shell since current management would quit, meaning that the acquiring company would have paid a lot of money for something of no value.
source: DigiTimes
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: