Acer has dismissed rumoured plans to acquire Gateway. Chairman JT Wang today rubbished the reports, claiming that his company did not plan to acquire Gateway in order to strengthen its competitive edge against Dell and others. Wang did, however, confirm that some investors had suggested Acer do so, but also reaffirmed that Acer will be able to beat its financial forecasts for 2006 without such a merger.
Wang said because Acer's notebooks are already number one in Europe, the company expects its growth there to slow down this year.
But Acer's overall sales in Europe could still grow 30% to US$6.5 billion in 2006 from US$5 billion in 2005.
Even if Acer grew only 20% in Europe because of strong competition, its revenues would still grow to US$6 billion in 2006, Wang said. But Acer could make that up from the US and China markets, he added.