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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (38562)	10/20/2000 9:14:08 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

PC Industry Faces Earlier Winter on Weak Market Growth October 20, 2000 (TAIPEI) -- Lin Sen-ming, general manager of Acer Inc., said that global sales of personal computers increased only 10 percent in the fourth quarter, from a year earlier, boding ill for earnings this year. However, some makers are confident that the global PC market is capable of growing 12 percent in the coming year. Taiwan's top eight PC makers reported different sales performances in the January-September period due to the change of order flows from overseas PC powerhouses. Acer failed to benefit from the local PC boom season, and it was the only company in the top eight to see its sales decline, due to a retraction of major orders by IBM. Quanta Computer Inc., the largest PC maker in Taiwan, had a flat performance, reporting sales growth of only 7.8 percent. Others, including Mitac International Corp., Compal Electronics Inc., Inventec Corp., Arima Computer Corp. and Hou Hai Precision Industry, did much better. Their sales growth was at a level of 50 percent or higher. Acer posted sales of NT$127.8 billion for 1999, the best results of any of Taiwan's companies. The result encouraged Acer to set its sales projection for 2000 at a level 17 percent higher at NT$150 billion, and its pretax profits more than 60 percent higher at NT$12 billion, equivalent to NT$3.19 a share. Faced with the blow of losing IBM's orders, Acer was forced to cut its internal operation targets a few months ago, and lowered its 2000 full-year sales target to NT$130 billion. Lin said the slowing growth in the PC market in the fourth quarter might force the company to slash its annual targets again before year-end. Although Acer lost IBM's bulk order because of a decision by IBM to pull out of the desktop PC industry in the United States, its encouraging notebook computer business may offset losses in the desktop PC sector. Acer said its notebook computer shipments will reach 2.5 million units this year, up more than 40 percent year-on-year. Shipments of own-brand notebook computers are predicted to increase by more than 60 percent. (NT$32.52 = US$1) (Commercial Times, Taiwan)