Acer CEO Resigns as Board Wants to be Apple
Acer and its former CEO had different ideas.
Acer, one of the biggest seller of personal computers in the world, now has a change of leadership at the very top.
Acer CEO and President Gianfranco Lanci today resigned from the company, with Chairman J.T. Wang taking acting role in the interim. The resignation was approved at a meeting of Acer's Board of Directors today.
The computer company was clear on the reason for his departure: Lanci held different views from a majority of the board members, and could not reach a consensus following several months' of dialog. According to the press release, he and the board placed different levels of importance on scale, growth, customer value creation, brand position enhancement, and on resource allocation and methods of implementation.
Acer Chairman, J.T. Wang commented, "The personal computer remains the core of our business. We have built up a strong foundation and will continue to expand within, especially in the commercial PC segment. In addition, we are stepping into the new mobile device market, where we will invest cautiously and aim to become one of the leading players."
Such comments make it sound as if Lanci had ideas to shift focus away from the PC and towards mobile devices less cautiously than the board wanted.
"In this new ICT industry," continued Wang, "Acer needs a period of time for adjustment. With the spirit of entrepreneurship, we will face new challenges and look to the future with confidence."
UPDATE: It was the other way around. Lanci's strategy was in the PC space competing against Dell and HP but the board wanted to compete against the likes of Apple and HTC on phones and tablets.
The move was made likely after the board saw the dollar signs that come with Apple's profit margins. According to Bloomberg, Apple had a 21.5 percent profit margin in its last fiscal year, whereas Acer had 2.3 percent.
“We were almost too successful in the past . . . but more recently the iPad [tablet computer] and other new form factors have had a very big impact on the PC market,” Mr. Wang said to the Financial Times. “We have to change our business strategy.”
microsoft out did you changing my date to may 1st when the clock rolled over, was trying to figure out how microsoft security essentials said its virus definition was out of date and hadn't been scanned in 7 days yet it had the same definition number when i hit update and had just let it scan the previous night!
ooh hahahahaha very funny microsoft!
Acer will end up falling by the wayside because they ignored good advice.
If I was the CEO I would resign too and see if I could get a job at a company with vision and backbone.
They need to do one thing to help Acer prosper:
LISTEN TO THE EXPERT'S AT TOM'S who clearly know more about the computer business than they do. Pay special attention to the Apple hater, as they are most intelligent of the lot.
How's that $1,599 WWDC ticket feel in your hand?
You will probably frame it and show your kids someday, meanwhile Apple is laughing all the way to the bank.
If you get offended then i succeeded.
This ranks up there with AMD's idiot board of directors thinking AMD could/should/would make a viable cellphone CPU. They'd do just as well to diversify into making cars as they would cellphone chips, just look at Intel's utter lack of design wins for billions of dollars in research and development.
Now we see Capitalism destroy creativity (user customization) as well as technological feats.
From now on a Technological feat will be to release an initial product at a given price and then 3 months later re-release the same product in a different color and slightly updated look/feel. Maybe include a new "Sticker".
Watch as a bunch of folks go out and buy the initial product and then the re-release.
Ahh crApple.
You're in a bar and go up to a guy you don't like and punch him in the face. He just stands there looking at you and you ask him:
"Did that hurt?"
If you have to ask, then you've already lost.
Amazing, the story was totally the wrong way round - but kudos for fixing the mistake.
In this instance I now think the board was right and the CEO was an idiot who will be lucky to get a job selling beige-box PCs in Frys.