Acer signed as Olympic partner from 2009

LONDON: Acer today announced that will be an official partner for the Olympics from 2009.

The deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) makes Acer a Worldwide Top partner for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Acer will supply services and hardware, including desktops, notebooks and non-Unix servers to the games, to help manage all aspects of the events.

JT Wang chairman and CEO of Acer commented: "2007 has been an extraordinary year for Acer. We have completed the acquisition of Gateway, which secured our positioned as the third largest vendor in the global PC market, and we anticipate a bright future ahead of us.

"We expect revenue in 2008 to be over $20 billion, with double digit growth; our revenue in 2012 will be between $30 and $40 billion. With this scale of business, the amount that we are investing with in relation to this partnership makes it very affordable. I am absolutely convinced this is the best marketing commitment for the Acer brand and the other brands Acer owns," he added. Gerhard Heiberg, IOC member and chairman of the IOC Marketing Commission, speaking at the launch said: "We are delighted that Acer has joined us to become our partner for the future. It is not a question of only needing a technical partner, we need the services and we need the people of Acer to get the games running. You could say Acer will be the co-organizer of the games."

Acer will take over the partnership with the IOC from rival Lenovo, which is the official sponsor for next year's Bejing Olympics.

The deal is not Acer's first sports sponsorship. The company has also previously supported Inter Milan and Barcelona football teams, Yamaha in Moto GP and has a long running relationship with Ferrari for Formula One.

The sponsorship deal is seen as important in terms of building the Acer brand on a global scale, particularly in the US and Europe. The company's acquisition of Gateway earlier in the year was seen as an important move in building presence in the US, and Acer now aims to build its brand to match other global PC brands.

Emanuele Accolla, VP for Acer EMEA and director of Acer Middle East, Turkey and Africa said: "This partnership indicates our long term commitment to Acer becoming a big player in the industry worldwide, including the Middle East. It is a big step forward in our brand development, and a new move towards a multibrand strategy."