Acer sees more losses as revamp charges hurt Q2

TAIPEI: Taiwanese personal computer (PC) maker Acer Inc reported a worse-than-expected quarterly loss, the first in company history, as it took charges to reorganise in a troubled first half, and said it would be impossible to break even for the full year.

Acer has been a dominant force in the PC business, particularly in the low-cost notebook segment, but has failed to counter the runaway success of tablets such as Apple’s hot-selling iPad that have cut into PC sales and hurt profits.

The company has been refocusing on mobile devices to drive growth after a first half that saw the acrimonious departure of its chief executive following a row over the company’s strategy and a series of cuts to its shipment forecasts.

Shares of Acer, the world’s No. 2 PC vendor, closed down 2.92% yesterday ahead of the earnings announcement.

Chairman J.T. Wang told an investor conference that the second quarter was a “correction period” and its loss was worse than expected because the company cleared up excessive inventory and made severance payments for senior management resignations.

Acer posted a net loss of T$6.79bil (US$234.3mil) in April-June, much wider than the consensus forecast of a T$3.3bil loss from six analysts polled by Reuters.

The unaudited net loss figure compared with a net profit of T$1.19bil in the first quarter and earnings of T$$2.65bil in the same period a year ago. — Reuters