Acer wants a larger slice of the PC gaming pie, plans to spin off peripherals business

Acer is getting serious about gaming mice and other PC peripherals. So serious, in fact, that it plans on spinning off its PC gaming and smart accessories business into a wholly owned subsidiary to capture a larger share of the market.

Acer spokesperson Wayne Chang said at a news conference that the subsidiary is tentatively named Gadget Technology Inc., though that could change, Taipei Times reports.

It seems that all options are on the table at the moment. Acer would not rule out letting Gadget Technology serve as an internal start-up incubator, and an initial public offering (IPO) is something it is considering as well.

This is not a surprising move by Acer, given its interest in the PC gaming segment with its Predator product line. In addition to gaming desktops and monitors, Acer just recently announced a bunch of new gaming gear under its Predator umbrella, including mice, mechanical keyboards, and even a gaming chair.

On the financial side, Acer just reported its highest second-quarter profit in eight years, and said that gaming played a key role in its growth.

"Acer’s double-digit gross margin over several quarters demonstrates the steady momentum of operations, while its gaming line was one of the key contributors of revenue growth," the company said.

The spin off is scheduled for September 14.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).