Aaron Lee, Taipei; Joseph Tsai

 

Wistron, after raising US$180 million in euro-convertible bonds (ECB) and building a US$100 million greenshoe fund, is seeking acquisition targets for vertical integration and is eying components such as touchscreen, LCD module (LCM) and software, according to company chairman Simon Lin.

Wistron is expected to ship 33-35 million notebooks in 2012, up 10% on year, with shipments of tablet PC to reach four million units, double to triple shipments from 2011, while shipments of LCD TVs are estimated to hold level on year.

As for non-notebook product lines, Lin noted that the company's non-notebook businesses already accounted for close to 40% of its revenues in 2011 and are estimated to surpass 40% in 2012 to help ease the impact from slowing growth of notebook shipments.

Lin is also optimistic about ultrabooks and is set to have ultrabook shipments account for 20% of its total notebook shipments, an equivalent volume of seven million units.