IBM Corp’s personal computer manufacturing in the US is looking very insecure. Acer Inc is only one of several Far Eastern manufacturers IBM has approached about an OEM personal computer megadeal, which makes it look as if the decision to buy in has already been taken and it’s only the identity of the supplier that’s at issue. The $1.8bn to $2bn being talked about covers only the factory gate price, inflating to perhaps $4bn once the machines reach the end user. That is pretty much IBM’s entire requirement of desktops for the US market and presumably it will continue to make the much higher-margin personal computer servers. Meanwhile, DEC is a mite discomfited by word that IBM is talking with Acer the PC Week gossip column was told – because DEC was talking to the same company about a similar deal for at least a large part of its desktops.
