From DailyTech: Taiwanese electronics OEM ASUSTek Computer Inc. (TPE:2357) in Q2 and Q3 2012 was roughly tied for the world's fastest growing PC maker, according to the Interactive Data Corp. (IDC). Now its seen that streak of success collapse as poor sales of Windows 8 PCs catch up to it.
As a large percentage of consumers have rejected Windows 8, PC sales have predictably suffered, but the extent to which it has suffered has been eye-catching. The market has posted the biggest percentage declines in unit sales in the history of the Windows PC. And ASUSTEK -- once a poster-child of sucess has now become the new face of the consequences of Windows 8's market failure.
In Q3 2013, while Dell and Hewlett Packard Comp. (HPQ) saw virtually no year-to-year growth (0.3 and 0.4 percent growth, respectively) and Lenovo Group, Ltd. (HKG:0992) posted an anemic (but market leading) 2.2 percent growth, ASUSTEK watched its fellow Taiwanese OEM Acer, Inc. (TPE:2353) drop 34.5 percent in unit sales.
This wasn't exactly unexpected; Acer lost 9.6 percent of sales from Q3 2011 to Q3 2013 as well.
What was much more shocking was that ASUSTEK -- just a year ago tied for the title of fastest PC sales growth -- saw a massive decline in sales (34.1 percent) that virtually tied it with Acer in market decline.
The good news for investors is that ASUSTEK was somewhat shielded from this decline by its offerings in new markets, including the tablet market. Tablets are ASUSTEK's second largest product category, accounting for 20 percent of the company's total earnings.
Despite the decline in PC unit shipments, ASUSTEK managed a modest NT$4.94B ($167.6M USD) profit. A year ago ASUSTEK made NT$6.71B ($227.1M USD) -- so that's a drop of 26 percent. Most of this came from NT$1.52B ($51.58M USD) in "one-time" tax expenses, according to a report by The Taipei Times. It is unclear what these charges pertained to. Those taxes aside, net profit declined 3.7 percent on a YoY (year-to-year) basis.
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