Multitech, founded by Stan Shih, his wife Carolyn Yeh, and a group of five others in 1976, was renamed Acer in 1987. It began with eleven employees and US$25,000 in capital. Initially, it was primarily a distributor of electronic parts and a consultant in the use of microprocessor technologies. The global headquarters is in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. Acer purchased Texas Instruments' mobile PC (laptop) division in 1997.
In 2000, Acer spun off its manufacturing operation as Wistron Corporation, to focus itself on branding business. In deciding to support the sales of its product lines through specific marketing activities that best utilise distribution channels, Acer grew worldwide while its labour force contracted. In 2002, the pan Acer Group employed 39,000 people supporting dealers and distributors in more than 100 countries.Revenues reached US$12.9 billion that year.By 2005, Acer employed 7,800 people throughout the world while maintaining a global sales and service network. Revenues were US$4.9 billion in 2003 and US$11.31 billion in 2006. Acer's North American market share slipped over the past few years while the European market share has gone up.
In Europe, Acer mounted an association with the Ferrari Formula 1 Team. Prior to this they were associated with Prost Grand Prix in 2001 and the BAR-Honda team in 2002. Their sponsorship of Prost was intensive - buying the naming rights to the engine (which was also a Ferrari). Throughout the 2001 season the team were referred to as Prost-Acer. After Prost folded, Acer sponsored the BAR team, but in a much smaller way. Acer offer a popular line of premium laptops and LCD monitors with Ferrari branding. It has recently broadened the scope of its relationship with Ferrari by announcing it will sponsor the Formula One team until 2008. Acer has recently introduced the Ferrari line of products to North America, and rolled out a Ferrari-branded line of PDA devices.
Acer ranks as the world's No. 3 branded PC vendor behind the Hewlett Packard Company and Dell Inc, recently claiming the No.3 rank from Lenovo.It has surpassed Dell in worldwide notebook shipments, becoming the world's No. 2 branded notebook vendor.
But it has recently lost its 2nd position to Dell to become 3rd only by a small margin. Moreover Acer will put renewed efforts in its newly acquired brands to regain its place.In September 2008, Acer surpassed HP and Dell over worldwide notebook shipment.
On August 27, 2007, Acer announced plans to acquire U.S. based rival Gateway Inc. for US$710 million. J.T. Wang, the company's chairman, said in a statement that the acquisition "completes Acer's global footprint, by strengthening our U.S. presence."In January 2008, Acer announced that it had acquired a controlling interest of 75% of Packard Bell.
