Acer wants to be more like Apple and restructures to do it

Yesterday we mentioned that Acer's CEO had stepped down amid some disagreement on product development. Acer was hit hard last year with the sales of netbooks dropping massively in the face of the hugely popular iPad and other tablets. Acer has now set its sights on Apple and HTC. Acer had previously tried to target HP and that didn't work out so well for it so the sights are only slightly lower this time around.

Acer has noted that it will start to undergo some corporate restructuring according to the chairman JT Wang. Wang will also assume the spot of CEO with Guianfranco Lanci stepping down and a new global president will be appointed with DigiTimes claiming that will come at the end of April. Wang will handle finance, personnel and global marketing while the president will supervise product design, innovation, procurement, and logistics.

Acer is also set to buy back up to NT$68.8 billion in stock shares. That works out to about 54 million shares at the current price. The buyback will be conducted from April 1 to May 31 according to a filing the company made with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Acer shares are down 1.2% to close to NT$60 on the TSE as of yesterday.