Acer’s low
PC giant Acer recently parted company with its former CEO and president Gianfranco Lanci, having disagreed with his strategy, or lack of, for tacking the seismic shift brought about by the rapid growth of the mobile device market.
In less than three weeks (take note, AMD) Acer has announced chairman J.T. Wang will remain as CEO, and it's promoting Acer lifer Jim Wong to the role of president.
Acer's sense of urgency in both dropping Lanci and appointing his replacement can be explained by is haemorrhaging sales, which have fallen way short of expectations for the past two quarters. That situation just got worse, with the announcement today that Acer expects Q2 sales to fall a further ten percent from a weak Q1, having forecast they would be sequentially flat less than a month ago.
Wong had previously been VP of the IT products group, which covers PCs. While he clearly hasn't been blamed for this sales slump, his former role has been given to Campbell Kan, who used to head up the smart handheld business unit.
Meanwhile Acer has created a new business unit called the Touch Business Group, which is focused on mobile devices and comprised of the former smartphone and tablet units. Acer added leadership of this business unit to Wong's new responsibilities, so he's really got his work cut out for him.
"The IT industry is encountering a profound change," said Wong. "I foresee many new opportunities and am ready to face the challenges ahead. I will encourage teamwork throughout the company and work closely with the new management team. We are ready with a clear set of goals and action plans."
"Touch/mobile devices open up a host of new opportunities. They form Acer's new business and growth engine for the future. To focus on this market, we saw the need to allocate sufficient resources, and devise a new management structure different from the PC business specifically for this line of business."
There was one more bit of top-level reorganization. Walter Deppeler, who inherited Lanci's EMEA presidential role, is also given the newly created CMO post. Confused? We don't blame you. Here's an organization chart.
