Studio Press

BenQ today announced its consolidated revenue for the month of March. The company’s core business recorded sales of NT$ 20.7 billion, up 75% year-on-year. At the Taiwan parent company level, March revenue was NT$12.4 billion, up 25% year-on-year. BenQ’s LCD monitors posted strong growth in March in terms of sales and unit shipment. Driven by continuing strong demand for LCD monitors, the company shipped over 1.2 million units this month, hitting a new record high. Other product lines, such as optical disc drives and projectors, grew slightly in value terms month-on-month. “We believe revenue in the coming months should benefit from increasing shipment of BenQ-Siemens handsets,” according to Eric Ky Yu, BenQ’s Senior Vice President of Finance and Spokesperson. BenQ today also announced it has formed a strategic alliance with Lite-On IT in storage products. Lite-On IT will acquire BenQ’s storage-related assets including BenQ’s ODM customer portfolio, rights to use BenQ’s technology, and secure order commitments on BenQ-branded storage products. BenQ will receive approximately NT$1.2 billion in cash and acquire a 13% stake in Lite-On IT. Both companies expect to close the transaction on or about 1 June 2006. The transaction is expected to increase Lite-On IT’s global market share to 27%, making it the world’s No. 2 optical disk drive (ODD) maker. BenQ will continue focusing on marketing and sales of own-brand storage products. “With this alliance, we expect to benefit from increased focus and this strategic transaction should enable BenQ to better address brand and 3C opportunities,” added Mr. Yu.