BenQ suffers huge losses, sells assets

Hello guest,: To benefit from all extra features you need to log in or sign up.

24 Oct 06 20:31 by Crabbyappleton in category Uncategorized To news archive

Print this page

Although they no longer produce any optical drives, at least in Europe so far, the BenQ company is well known to CD Freaks members. So, this latest story of the companies financial state, will still be of interest to us. We can certainly feel bad for the thousands of laid off workers due to this business crisis! Taiwan’s BenQ has stated that they lost over $600 million dollars in the first 9 months of 2006. They now intend to sell off some of their “non-core” assets to try and recover from a disastrous cell phone business venture. It got so bad, according to this report at EE Times, that Siemens paid BenQ to take it off their hands. BenQ has already put up some $760 million dollars to try and keep the Siemens unit alive.

Last month, it threw in the towel and forced the unit into bankruptcy. This week, roughly two-thirds of the 3,000 workers in Germany were laid off and are fighting a bitter dispute over compensation from BenQ as well as the former parent Siemens.
BenQ said Tuesday that it would sell off some operations to improve its books, and would assess the impact of the unit’s failure on other operations.
”Each of the subsidiaries impacted by the filing will evaluate their financial condition and determine whether they should also file for insolvency protection. We believe the decision to seek insolvency protection on the part of our mobile-handset subsidiaries should have a limited impact on BenQ’s non-handset operations,” said Eric Ky Yu, BenQ’s senior vice president of finance, said in a statement.

The article went on to say that the ongoing strategy for the struggling company at this point, is to set aside funding for the BenQ Mobile German division. The priority will be to “rebuild sales channels and boost consumer confidence”.

Source: EE Times

9 Comments

Quema34: Posts: 3208; Posted on: 24 Oct 06 21:14

Wow! BenQ (Acer) has really taken a hit. If how they don't follow up on contacting potential employees at the local plant here is any indication, they are quite careless and don't know what they have in front of them, so there must be some carryover to this as well, sadly.

Wischmop: Posts: 394; Posted on: 24 Oct 06 21:51

I had bought a Benq, but Benq did much shit here in Germany with the Siemens-Mobile-Part. They will get their lesson, Benq-products sold last weeks less and less

thyfleshconsumed: Posts: 174; Posted on: 25 Oct 06 00:08

Never had a chance to use siemens/benq cellphone, but according to popular opinion, they were one of the worst. Pity as they had to close OD division earlier, I loved 1620/1640/1650 drives, one of the best on the market. I suppose I will be using my 1640/1650 until they die, I just hope it doesn't happen any time soon, if it happens at all.

heffeque: Posts: 169; Posted on: 25 Oct 06 00:45

Darn... I like their cheap but good quality digital cameras :-( I just bought a 160 euro E520+ that has a Pentax lens and makes great quality xvid videos.

ricoman: Posts: 1076; Posted on: 25 Oct 06 01:09

Must be plain bad business management. They had a good rep and good products. I own a 1640 and a 19" monitor, both are very good.

tylau: Posts: 248; Posted on: 25 Oct 06 06:13

Too bad their siemens deal was now being regarded as a disaster that exemplary that of a cultural misunderstanding in cross cultural buy-outs of companies, sad.

XND1n01h: Posts: 398; Posted on: 25 Oct 06 11:07

Wow let's think about that, To us losing a $500 bet would hurt our pockets, now imagine $600 million! man that's an amount that some of us would never see in our lifetime... Companies are getting craftier these days but there's also a lot of costly trial and error:r

twsyf: Posts: 14; Posted on: 25 Oct 06 14:24

When Acquisitions & Mergers is merely another name for "big boys" gambling and BS******g, as well as lining pockets to lubricate the mechanism of commerce/amorality, it's the comsumers who will pay in the end. And serves us right too for indulgently sucking up to every new crap in sight masquerading as "progress". Now, where is due diligence in all this, eh, not forgetting that if it impacts on every division within the empire, I have to double check my new BenQ panel a little closer.

Brave Heart: Posts: 56; Posted on: 26 Oct 06 08:53

Some of us? I can guarantee that NO ONE here will ever see anything close to 600 million dollar......

Most popular headlines

Repeat UK file sharers to be banned (2)

Wednesday 28 October 22:56 by Randomus
Piracy

Internet users in the United Kingdom accused of illegally sharing copyrighted music and movie files will face stiff penalties, starting with warning letters that will lead to bandwidth restrictions, according to media reports from the UK.

Nintendo to launch larger screen DSi

Wednesday 28 October 01:35 by Randomus
Game Consoles

Nintendo is expected to launch a new DSi hand-held gaming device in Japan that has a larger screen, as the company tries to increase sales in the hand-held gaming market it once dominated.

T-Mobile offers no contract phone plan

Tuesday 27 October 22:46 by Randomus
Mobile Phones

In an effort to better compete with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, T-Mobile has introduced new no-contract wireless plans that include unlimited voice services.

2 new Roku boxes launched for Netflix & more

Tuesday 27 October 21:50 by JaredNewman
Online Video

Roku's streaming set-top set-top boxes now come in three flavors, adding new features as well.

See all headlines