Watch out HP
The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of the Holland-based Packard Bell by Taiwan-based Acer.
It concluded that Acer swallowing up Packard Bell would not ‘significantly’ prevent competition in the European Economic Area, what with HP, Dell, Sony, Lenovo, etc all giving it a good run for its money in all areas.
Acer is currently the number two PC vendor in Europe behind HP. The Packard Bell acquisition puts it in a good position to overtake HP as well as keeping Lenovo, which had also been linked with Packard Bell, from buying a nice chunk of the European consumer market.