It's amazing what $290 million will get you nowadays. Why just yesterday, Acer, the world's third largest PC vendor, inked a deal to buy smartphone maker E-Ten Information System for that very amount. Acer currently sells a selection of standalone PDAs, but has been - until now - absent from the booming smartphone arena.

Although the E-Ten is relatively unknown here, its products are popular in Asia, where its line of Glofish smartphones are well-regarded for their cutting-edge features.

For example, at last month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, E-Ten introduced the Glofiish V900, which supports nearly every mobile television standard imaginable and includes a VGA (640 x 480 pixel) hi-res resolution touch display, an iPhone-like graphical user interface grafted onto Windows Mobile 6, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and 3.5G HSDPA cellular-wireless data networking for GSM carriers

Apparently, Acer made the E-Ten purchase because it wanted to jump into the increasingly lucrative yet competitive smartphone space but didn't want to start from scratch do so. Acer CEO J.T. Wang put it this way: "The acquisition of E-Ten increases Acer's global footprint by giving us a strong and highly credible presence in the mobility segment."


                           E-Ten's Glofiish V900

According to Acer President Gianfranco Lanci, "The worldwide smartphone market is estimated to grow by more than 30 percent by 2011. Acer will enhance the competitiveness in the ultramobile segment, by combining PC and communication technologies."

Acer expanded its PC worldwide PC footprint considerably over the last six months. It acquired Gateway for $710 million last year and bought a 75 percent share of Packard Bell for $48.5 a little more than a month ago.

The Acer/E-Ten deal is expected to close in the third quarter. It still must gain the approval of government regulators and shareholders.