X-bit labs

Abit to Get Back to the Roots: Set to Target Overclocking Community.

Category: Mainboards

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/23/2006 | 08:22 PM ]

Abit, a legendary name among overclockers just about three years ago, was nearly destroyed by the dispute with Taiwanese authorities its former owners had, but after a merge with Universal Scientific Industrial (USI), a large maker of computer components for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the company hopes to get back to the market where quality and reliability matter most of all.

The new company, registered as Universal Abit Co. Ltd., will tender a consideration consisting of about $10.7 million in cash, 20 million units of special shares, and 5 million units of warrants to purchase the above mentioned intangible assets of Abit, including patents, trademarks and so on. With the new partnership, Abit receives a strong financial backing from which to continue its core business, and also eliminates the financial straits which began late Q4 2004.

The company’s marketing chief, David Jarlestedt, says now the company’s main target is to “return to its roots” and offer the mainboards most suitable for overclockers, those, who push their systems to the very limits. The company is indeed known for its products oriented on overclockers, however, back in 2003-2004 Abit started to give more and more attention to the markets of computer gamers with its Fatal1ty products as well as sponsored game events.

Abit is still manufacturing mainboards with serious overclocking capabilities; however, a lot of performance enthusiasts are on the market for Asus, DFI or MSI. All of those enthusiasts, who acquire up to half a million of premium mainboards per quarter, could be Abit’s.

Now, several years later the company is coming back, with the aid of USI, which is mostly known as design, manufacturing and service (DMS) company. USI has over 10 thousand employees worldwide, which gives Abit chances not only to win its markets back, but also to address new ones.