Acer founder would welcome a buyout, calls his company an empty shell

Acer founder Stan Shih told the press he would welcome a takeover. The Taiwanese PC maker is hurting by a combination of the downturn of the computer market as well as loss of marketshare. In the first half of this year, Acer posted a loss of T$2.89 billion ($90 million), versus a small profit in the same period last year. Acer's financials have been bad for quite some time, Reuters writes the company booked losses for all of 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Shih's comment was quite unusual, he said any potential buyer would pay "a heavy price" for what he believes is basically an "empty shell":

"Welcome," Shih told reporters in response to a question about whether Acer would be open to a takeover. He added however that any buyer would get an "empty shell" and would pay dearly.

"U.S. and European management teams usually are concerned about money, their CEOs only work for money. But Taiwanese are more concerned about a sense of mission and emotional factors," he said.