MicroStar International (MSI), one of the largest producers of computer parts in the world, said it may be considering cooperation with other makers of mainboards in order to stay competitive with industry giants Asustek Computer, Foxconn Electronics and Gigabyte United.

“Motherboard makers in Taiwan have the opportunity for increased profitability, if they are willing to cooperate with each other,?MSI president, Hsiang Hsu is reported to have said during a meeting with the company's employees. He is reported to have added that MSI may be looking to form alliances in the future, even with motherboard makers that are not running the same business plan as the company.

Consolidation in the computer hardware industry is not something new at all. As larger players have been gaining market share rather quickly in the most recent years enjoying economy of scale and lucrative deals with leading PC suppliers, merges in the mainboard and computer components industries have been going for several years now, just like re-focusing of several companies. Yet another reason for consolidations is increased complexity of electronics, which requires consistent hiking of research and development funds.

During the last 12 to 18 months Walton acquired a stake in Chaintech, Abit was bought by USI, Leadtek Research teamed up with Foxconn, Gigabyte formed joint-venture with Asus and several other deals were conducted. Moreover, recently a rumour broke out that Asustek plans to acquire MSI.

MSI hopes to achieve more than 50% growth in its notebook and consumer electronics (CE) products, and to increase growth more than 30% in the channel during 2007, it was revealed at the meeting. The ultimate goal for the company is to shift its business to “higher level? which particularly means higher percentage of own-brand products sold to end-users, something that involves notebooks and consumer electronics.

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