BenQ offloads its digital camera manufacturing capability to Ability

Edvarcl Heng | May 21, 2007

BenQ Corporation and Ability Enterprise Co, a Taiwan-based digital camera manufacturer, have jointly announced the sale of BenQ's digital camera-related R&D and manufacturing facilities to Ability. No official price was quoted for the acquisition, though the press release stated that Ability will be paying for the assets based on the determined book value on June 30.

This turn of events does not mean that the Taiwanese manufacturer will cease sales of BenQ-branded digital cameras. Instead, Sheaffer Lee, president of BenQ Corporation, explained in a press release statement: "Digital camera(s) is one of our most important and profitable lines… Ability will remain as one of our most important strategic suppliers for future BenQ-branded digital cameras."

Currently in Southeast Asia, BenQ's camera presence is limited to just Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Email enquiries to BenQ digital camera representatives in Malaysia and Thailand on the future of BenQ digicams in their respective markets were unanswered at press time.

A Reuters report highlighted that the Ability sale is part of an asset-shedding exercise by BenQ in order to raise more cash after posting losses in the last six quarters.