Taiwanese computer manufacturer Acer Inc has failed to agree terms with German electronics giant Siemens AG for the takeover of its PC production unit at Augsburg, in Germany and the talks have been halted, the two groups announced yesterday. The plan was unveiled in April (CI No 3,396) as part of a broad restructuring of Siemens’ IT and communications businesses, now being regrouped into the so-called Information and Communications (I&C) segment, which goes live at the beginning of next month. Acer was to have bought the plant and taken over manufacturing of Siemens Nixdorf Personal Computers on an OEM basis, leaving product development to the German company. Both groups attributed the failure of the negotiations to the ongoing Asian financial crisis, which has obliged Acer to concentrate more narrowly on some of its more troubled operations at home, particularly its semiconductor business.
