Abit, once leading-edge maker of computer mainboards and other components, will cease to exist starting the first of January, 2009, as the owner of the legendary brand – Universal Scientific Industrial – is in the process of restructuring and cutting down the costs.

Abit was once known as a supplier of the world’s best motherboards. The company’s products were praised by enthusiasts and overclockers due to their excellent quality as well as precise tweaking capabilities. Due to the dramatic popularity rise of high-end hardware early this decade, Abit became a very serious player on the motherboard market; however, questionable management practices have caused the company to leave graphics cards business first and then to sell the vast majority of assets as well as Abit brand name to Universal Scientific Industrial in 2006.

USI, which originally specialized on mainboard manufacturing for branded PC makers, could not eventually resurrect Abit brand that began to lose popularity back in 2004 – 2005 and this year Universal Scientific decided to shut down the legendary Abit motherboard business.

Earlier this year a web-site reported that expectations of Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) for Abit’s business had not been met and the holding was mulling to pull out Abit brand from the motherboard business and refocus the company on other devices. It was claimed that Abit sold from two to three million mainboards last year and this year the company’s sales dropped even further. The company denied the information back then.

At Computex Taipei 2008 trade show Abit demonstrated FunFab digital photo frame with integrated printer as well as a mobile Internet device (MID). In addition, the company also demonstrated a series of new mainboards and put a lot of hopes on platforms based on Intel P45 core-logic.

According to TweakTown web-site, USI decided to close down Abit on the 31^st of December, 2008.

Tags: Abit, Mainboards, Business