TAIPEI: Acer Inc , the world’s No. 4 PC brand, swung into its first profitable year in three years last year after it reported 0.5 percent sequential growth in net profit for last quarter here the other day.
Net income totaled NT$1.79 billion (US$57.23 million) last year, or NT$0.66 per share, reversing 2013’s loss of NT$20.51 billion, according to a company statement.
The financial results last year showed that Acer remained profitable throughout the entire year, with profits increasing each consecutive quarter, as it steadily turned its operations around, Acer said in a statement.
Gross margin rose to 8.8 percent last year from 6.26 percent in the previous year, while operating margin improved to 0.8 percent from minus-3.17 percent year-on-year, the company said.
On a quarterly basis, last quarter’s net profits rose 0.5 percent to NT$654 million, from NT$650.66 million in the previous quarter, it said.
The company did not plan to distribute a dividend, in light of accumulated losses over past years.
Acer founder and former chairman Stan Shih earlier last month said that the company is upbeat, expecting its new cloud-computing business to mature this year and become its main growth driver next year.
Acer subsidiary Acer Octon Inc said it plans to unveil a new terminal switch device to be used in telephone networks for Web-connected building solutions by adopting cloud-computing technologies in New York next month.
“We plan to offer communication network solution that combine Acer’s hardware, software and cloud-computing services to enterprises and telecom operators around the world,” Acer Octon vice chairman Charles Chan told reporters.
For the first two months of this year, Acer’s revenues totaled NT$43.35 billion, a decrease of 5.63 percent from NT$45.93 billion made in the same period last year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
