Acer CEO Resigns As Q3 Loss Pushes Restructuring Plan
Today Acer has reported that they're not doing especially well in the PC business, reporting losses and a restructuring plan which includes the resignation of J.T. Wang as CEO. Acer corporate President Jim Wong will take over as CEO, while Wang will remain as chairman until June of 2014. Plans for restructure include a cut of 7 percent of employees worldwide, while raising T$2.87 billion (approximately $98 million USD) with 136 million new common shares.
Acer has created a new "Transformation Advisory Committee" as well. This committee is chaired by Acer founder Stan Shih, and will help in the transformation of the company into one better suited for the future of the PC industry. Acer reported a net loss of T$13.12 billion this quarter, this compared to a net profit of T$68 million this same quarter one year ago.
"Acer encountered many complicated and harsh challenges in the past few years. With the consecutive poor financial results, it is time for me to hand over the responsibility to a new leadership team to path the way for a new era." – J.T. Wang for Acer
One of the most obvious changes Acer will be making is a reduction in prospective inventory for the oncoming quarter. Acer suggests that their shipments of notebooks, tablet PCs, and Google Chrome-specific Chromebooks to be reduced by 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. Acer recently announced several products in each category, including the SlashGear-reviewed Acer Chromebook C720.
According to the IDC, Acer was certainly amongst the pack of wildly successful tablet market growth manufacturers this most recent quarter, running in with a 346.3-percent increase in shipments in tablets this Q3 2013 compared to Q3 2012. That's all put in perspective, of course, when you note that Acer still only holds 2.5-percent of the tablet market.
Have a peek at the Acer timeline below and SlashGear's Acer tag portal for additional information on how Acer has progressed over the past several weeks. It does not appear – on the surface – that they're slowing down in the creation of next-generation solutions in the PC business, and their growth into Chromebooks would appear to be a success as well – we'll see soon how their strategy changes now that what would've appeared to be the best laid plans have kept them on a less-than-perfect path.
VIA: Reuters