ECS Acquires Uniwill

Let’s welcome another big player in the laptop business, as Elitegroup–more popularly known as ECS–acquires Uniwill. Both are ODMs that produce laptops for other brands. However, ECS and Uniwill also sell laptops under their own brands, as well as other computer components, including motherboards and desktops, among others.

Via Dailytech:

Earlier today Elitegroup Computer Systems, better known as ECS, finalized the agreement for Uniwill Computer. Uniwill, for those not familiar, is a large OEM producer for Fujitsu, but also sells notebooks under its own brand.

ECS will purchase the company in a stock-swap, and further increase the manufacturing and R&D capability of Elitegroup. The estimated value of this stock-swap is about 108M USD,
The Uniwill purchase adds much needed manufacturing capacity for ECS; Uniwill just completed a massive 51,000 square meter facility capable of producing 7.2M PCs per year in Suzhou, China. Uniwill’s total capacity is about 18M computers per year.

From the ECS press release:

Upon completion of the Uniwill acquisition, ECS Elitegroup will become a company with more than 400 R&D team members for notebook PC design, and its production volume will scale up to 3 million sets per year. The expanded capabilities will place ECS Elitegroup as one of the top five notebook manufacturers in the world through a larger OEM/ODM customer base, enhanced sales volume, and reduced procurement and manufacturing costs.

ECS produces laptops for big brands such as Acer, while Uniwill manufactures Fujutsu-branded notebooks. The two companies’ design and manufacturing capabilities are thus expected to bring about a formidable addition to the world’s big names in the laptop market. The merged company is poised to be the world’s sixth largest laptop manufacturer by volume.