Acer's Next CEO Abruptly Resigns Too

Back on November 5, Acer announced that the resignation of Chairman and CEO J.T. Wang was approved by the Board of Directors. Wang was slated to continue on as Chairman until June 2014, and as CEO until December 31, 2013. The board and a special search committee even agreed that Corporate President Jim Wong would succeed Wang as the company’s new CEO beginning January 1, 2014. This change would initiate a corporate transformation, the announcement said.

"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," said J.T. Wang.

But now in a surprising twist, Jim Wong has also abruptly left the company, abandoning his upcoming CEO role. The company announced on Thursday that company founder Stan Shih will immediately take the role of Chairman and Interim Corporate President with “immediate effect”. Shih will serve as Acer’s Chairman until the end of his term on the Board.

"Despite their resignations, reluctantly accepted by the Board, both J.T. Wang and Jim Wong have committed to remain with Acer as advisors to ensure a smooth transition and transfer of the management team and to help the company back to stability," reads Acer’s announcement.

Acer will hand over the Corporate Presidency to the appropriate candidate as soon as possible. As for the position of CEO, the Board has decided to terminate that specific role, and will instead place the former CEO duties on the Chairman or President in order to boost the company’s decision making efficiency.

"Due to the situation that now faces Acer and my personal social responsibilities, I must stand up and take the reign without salary," Shih said. "I will honor and complete all the public affairs and event engagements that I have committed to, but I will also fully support Acer’s ICT device business and carry out the company transformation. In addition, George Huang who is one of my co-founding partners of Acer will join with me and the management team to lead our company at this time."

Earlier this month, Acer set up a Transformation Advisory Committee with board member Stan Shih as Chairman and Acer co-founder George Huang as executive secretary. This committee will propose changes in the company’s vision, execution plans and strategy for the Board’s approval. This committee will also work with the management team to carry out the transformation.

"After I retired from Acer I shifted my attention to promoting public interests. But when J.T. tendered his resignation, the Board turned to me for help," Shih said.

  • vaughn2k
    No wonder why their gadgets are inferior compared with others.. :D :D :D
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    Board: "make profits bigger, but without ever making quality products!"
    CEO: "uhm... ok, give me a second... aaaand I quit"

    No? I'd say it's close to the truth, haha.

    Cheers! :P
    Reply
  • vmem
    so the guy known for cheapo computers: aka eeebook, are going to take the company in a new direction? This'll be fun lol

    also, profits will be bigger now since they're no longer paying for a CEO :P
    Reply
  • killerclick
    They all freak out when they get introduced to the space lizards that actually control Acer.
    Reply
  • magneezo
    Bring back E Machines and retire Acer brand names. you shot yourself in the foot by derailing an improved company. Anyone who bought a Good E Machines computer after 2004 could surely attest their improved quality and I myself would surely buy another. Still running my 4 year old ET 1331G-03W that I bought at Wal-Mart in Dec. 2009. Fully upgradeable. I miss E-Machines
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    Shoot, they should just post on the forums here.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    *Bender voice* Abandon ship!!!!
    Reply
  • hardrock40
    You guys are kidding right? The Acer brand is way better than the crap HP has been putting out for the last 4 years. In the last 4 years Acer has really upped their game by making products that are very well built for the amount of money you can buy them at. Also wasnt it Asus that came out with the eee netbooks. BY the way Emachines are pretty much crap & yes I know Acer owns them as well. But Emachines is pretty much Acers bottom feeder line. Anyone that says different to what I said here has not owned or used an Acer laptop or desktop in the last few years.
    Reply
  • plasmastorm
    "Bring back E Machines "

    Holy crap they must be different in the USA, here in the UK e-machines are about the worst things you can get.
    Awful PSU's that are usually not even enough to power what it comes with never mind anything you may add later
    Reply
  • jasonpwns
    No issue with recent HP stuff here hardrock. Asus boards. Decent memory. Good procesors. Sturdy plastics in their most recent stuff. In 09-2011 HP had some issues with using really cheap plastics. Anything from 2012 feels nice. Especially their good APU stuff. The HPs I've gotten to use feel a lot more solid than the Toshiba or Acers I've held. Only reason I have a Toshiba laptop is I got an i3 for 50 dollars on craigslist. Main issue was the HDD failed.
    Reply