Taiwan's Acer posts Q3 profit, in line with mkt estimates

TAIPEI Oct 30 (Reuters) - Acer (2353.TW), the world's No.2 PC brand, posted a quarterly profit roughly in line with market estimates, indicating the company could be sacrificing profitability to increase its market share.

Acer's results follow better-than-expected earnings from top technology bellwethers such as Microsoft (MSFT.O), Intel (INTC.O) and IBM (IBM.N), underscoring a sector recovery and raising hopes for strong sales in the pre-Christmas shopping season.

Acer did not provide any outlook, but its chairman told Reuters this month that the company expected revenue to grow by 70 percent within three years, with much of the growth to come from low-cost netbook PCs. [ID:nTP259678]

The company reported a net profit of T$3.47 billion ($107 million) for July-September, in line with market expectations for T$3.42 billion, according to a poll of 15 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The result also met its own expectations for a T$3.45 billion net profit, but was higher than the T$3.04 billion recorded a year earlier.

Shares of Acer, Taiwan's best known brand, rose 2.23 percent on Friday, beating the 0.21 percent slide on the benchmark TAIEX share index .TWII. (Reporting by Kelvin Soh; Editing by Anshuman Daga and Chris Lewis)