Asus eyes Toshiba's laptop business

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 16 Nov 2009 at 10:28

Asus is reportedly considering a bid for Toshiba's laptop business.

The ever-ambitious Taiwanese manufacturer has publicly stated that it wants to be among the world's top three laptop manufacturers by 2011. Now it seems the company plans to buy its way to the top.

Asus chairman Jonney Shih told the Chinese Commercial Times that Toshiba's laptop business has been identified as one of the company's potential targets.

Toshiba has 5% of the worldwide PC market (both desktop and laptop), according to the latest figures from research firm Gartner.

Asus is currently the fifth biggest laptop maker with around 5% of the market. It would need around 10% of the market to leapfrog the current third-placed laptop manufacturer, Dell.

Asus and fellow Taiwanese manufacturer, Acer, have rocketed into the world's PC elite on the back of their success in the netbook market.

Netbooks now account for a fifth of all mobile PC sales worldwide.