MiTAC Officially Buys Out Magellan's Consumer GPS Division

Taipei, Jan. 16, 2009 (CENS)--One month after announcing a plan to buy out Magellan, Taiwan-based MiTAC International Corp., a global supplier of Mio-branded GPS devices, has officially acquired the U.S.-based brand's consumer GPS (global positioning system) division via its reinvested American subsidiary MDC (MiTAC Digital Corp.), according to company sources.

The acquisition, including the existing GPS software, patents, the trademark, licenses, intellectual property, personnel, client data and distribution channels of the division, costs MiTAC US$96 million; above all, the buyout will hopefully boost Mio's share to 10% and help to hold its No.3 position in the U.S. market for GPS devices, only trailing Garmin and TomTom.

MiTAC posted sales of NT$3.816 billion for December of 2008, down 18.4% from a month earlier and 30.9% from last December, and NT$61.148 billion for the entire year, declining 25.5% from 2007. The firm is expected to see continually sliding sales in the first quarter of 2009, mainly due to the global economic downturn and seasonal factor.