As you open multiple tabs searching for the most reliable laptop brands in today's market, you've probably seen Asus mentioned in rankings across user forums and tech blogs. Unlike some of its biggest competitors also in the business of high-performance laptops, Asus doesn't have a single parent company or institutional shareholders taking up a significant chunk of ownership. Although Asus is commonly mistaken for Acer as both companies are based in Taiwan, the two are completely separate businesses. Asus was founded in 1989 by four former Acer engineers: Tzu-Hsien Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh, and M.T. Today, only one of the founders, Ted Hsu, remains in Asus' leadership as its vice chairman, and Jonney Shih currently sits as the company's chairman, while S.Y.