North America

Acer America Corporation, headquartered in San Jose, California, is a member of the Acer Group. Acer's R&D, engineering, manufacturing and marketing operations in the United States and Canada are handled by Acer America. In September 1990, Acer acquired Altos Computer Systems, one of the top manufacturers of multi-user and networked Unix computer systems for commercial markets. In February 1997, Acer acquired Texas Instruments Mobile Computing business, including the award-winning TravelMate and Extensa notebook lines, making Acer the fourth-leading notebook manufacturer in the United States. In 2007 Acer acquired PC maker Gateway. The acquisitions marked Acer’s return to the US consumer market that it abandoned in 1999 after losing $45m struggling to build brand awareness. Acer America's Canadian office, in Mississauga, Ontario, handles repair of Acer, Gateway, and E-Machine Notebooks and Desktop PCs for Eastern Canada. Acer has several facilities in Temple, Texas including a repair facility, a parts warehouse, and a call center. In the words of its Chief Executive, J.T. Wang, “Building a brand is very different in the US. The investment at the initial stage has to be very big—otherwise there is almost no impact”.