InformationWeek

Thursday, Jan. 23

TI Sells Mobile Computing Business To Acer

Texas Instruments, the world's sixth/largest notebook vendor, is exiting the market by selling its mobile computing business to the Acer Group for an undisclosed sum.

Texas Instruments sources say the company is unloading the business, which includes its TravelMate and Extensa notebook lines, in order to cen ter its resources on its digital signal processing (DSP) business. "We felt for this [mobile computing] business to grow it needs to be with a company focused on it," says a spokeswoman. The move is the latest in the Dallas company's attempts to slim down; it also recently indicated that it's discontinuing producing x86 clone processors.

While Acer will acquire a product line with a solid foothold in corporate accounts, analysts question whether the consumer/oriented Acer can hold on to business users. "If you take a look at Acer's brand ranking, it's perceived as a consumer desktop model," says Randy Giusto, manager of mobile computing research at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. "For those corporate accounts that are purchasing TI equipment today, how are they going to feel about buying an Acer-branded notebook?"

Analysts say the deal is unexpected, despite a long-standing partnership between TI and Acer, which co-developed the Extensa line and sold it as an OEM. "I'm kind of surprise d because I thought the logical thing to do is translate the TravelMate business to the OEM side like they did the Extensa," Giusto says.

The TI machines will join Acer's existing AcerNote Light and AcerNote Nuovo lines; Acer will retain the Extensa and TravelMate brand names and sell them under the TI name for an undetermined period before transitioning them to the Acer brand. Acer will acquire all of the unit's assets and will hire the bulk of TI's mobile computing employees when the deal closes on or before March 31.

TI's U.S. mobile computing marketing, sales and customer service units will join Acer America Corp., while overseas units will report to corresponding Acer units. Steve Lair, TI's VP of worldwide marketing and sales, will become senior VP of sales and marketing for commercial systems, reporting directly to Acer America CEO Ronald Chwang. The former TI product line will continue to be assembled in its Temple, Texas, location. TI's mobile computing research unit also will stay in Templ e, but will report to Acer's Mobile Systems unit, part of the Information Products Group based in Taiwan.

--Jeff Sweat

Read More Headlines or Return To Home Page