Acer Fire-Losses Less Than Anticipated

Business as usual for all affected companies

TAIPEI (May 14, 2001) - Upon further post-fire inspection, it has been determined that the financial losses incurred by the Acer Group are not as great as first believed. Specifically, publicly listed Acer Group companies AOpen (producer of motherboards, housings, optical devices and multimedia products) and Apacer (memory module maker) report less loss than initially anticipated, downsizing the Acer Group's after-insurance fire-related financial burden to under NT$100M (US$3M) versus the original estimation of NT$130M (US$4M).

The Acer Group's total pre-insurance losses were first estimated to be NT$670M (US$20.3M), but have since been downgraded to about NT$500M (US$15.2M). Acer Inc.'s post-insurance losses come to about NT$70M (US$2.1M), resulting from its investments in the fire-afflicted companies.

The reduced financial figures are largely attributed to a firewall that served its purpose well, effectively preventing the flames from spreading too far.

Fully equipped offices for AOpen and Apacer, as well as the other affected Acer Group companies (HiTrust, Servex and Pivotal), have been set up at the Taipei headquarters, as well as at the company's Lungtang site, so business is already continuing as usual. What's more, new offices at the headquarters, set to accommodate more than 200 employees on two separate floors, will be ready by this Thursday (May 17) for the future use of all of the affected companies.

As indicated in an earlier news release, Acer Inc. (headquarters) and Acer Sertek (Acer's sales/marketing arm in Taiwan) escaped the blaze unscathed, as they are located in the one building of the four-structure complex that did not catch fire.

Acer is also offering IT equipment and service at discount prices and special payment terms to help non-Acer companies located in the Eastern Science Park to recover from the effects of the fire and get their operations back on track.