IOC Expected To Name Acer As New TOP Partner

By Tripp Mickle, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal 

The IOC is expected to name Acer, a Taiwanese computer company, as a TOP partner for 2009 through 2012 during an announcement in London Thursday, sources said. Terms of the agreement were not available, and the IOC declined to comment. Lenovo, which announced it will end its sponsorship of the IOC in ‘08, paid the IOC $80M over four years. Lenovo will continue to sponsor the Olympics through the end of ’08. Founded in ‘76, Acer is one of the five largest PC companies in the world and the top notebook brand in Italy, Spain, Holland, Switzerland, Russia and eight other countries. Its revenues reached $11.32B in ‘06. The company previously looked at sponsoring the ‘06 and ‘08 Olympic Games, but the Chinese government opposed having a company with Taiwan roots sponsoring the Beijing Games, sources said. Taiwan has been self-ruled since ’49, and China has always maintained that it is part of China and must return to rule by Beijing.