With its shares tanking after it lowered its first-quarter guidance, Acer Inc (宏碁), one of the world’s top three PC brands, announced yesterday that Gianfranco Lanci had resigned as president and CEO, with immediate effect.
The resignation was approved at a board of directors’ meeting yesterday, Acer said in a statement.
“Lanci held different views from a majority of the board” about the company’s future development, despite several months of dialogue, it read.
Lanci and the board “placed different levels of importance on scale, growth, customer value creation and brand position enhancement,” as the company faces increasing competition from mobile device makers, it said.
There was disagreement on resource allocation and strategy implementation, the statement read.
Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂), who doubles as head of the Taipei Computer Association (台北市電腦公會), has taken over as chief executive while the firm begins organizational planning and operational adjustments to ensure its business sustainability, the statement said.
“PC remains the core of our business. We have built up a strong foundation and will continue to expand, especially in the commercial PC segment,” Wang said in the statement.
Wang added that the company was stepping into the new mobile device market, especially the field of tablet PCs, where it would invest cautiously in a bid to become a leading player.
“In this new ICT [information communication technology] industry, Acer needs a period of time for adjustment. With a spirit of entrepreneurship, we will face new challenges and look to the future with confidence,” he said.
The firm also promoted Walter Deppeler, deputy president of Acer Europe, Middle East, Africa, to president of the division.
Acer last week trimmed its first-quarter revenue forecast, blaming weak demand in Europe and the US.
The company said sales would fall 10 percent in the first three months of this year from NT$149.7 billion (US$5.08 billion) in the fourth quarter of last year, rather than its prior forecast of 3 percent sequential growth.
The revised guidance sent Acer’s stock tumbling for five consecutive trading days, a total of 17.6 percent. The shares closed at NT$60 yesterday.
“The management reshuffle is likely to dampen the company’s already weak business outlook over the next few quarters,” said an analyst, who requested not to be named.
The rise of tablet devices, the iPad in particular, posed a threat to Acer’s business as tablets were eating into the netbook computer market, and “Acer was slow to react [to this trend],” the analyst said.
Taipei-bases researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) yesterday cut its global notebook computer shipment forecast to 208 million units from 222.7 million units estimated in November because of shrinking demand in Japan following the devastating earthquake and erosion of tablet devices.
In an impromptu meeting with analysts following Lanci’s resignation, Acer said it was shifting its focus to becoming a leader in mobile devices.
Yuanta Securities (元大證券) head Vincent Chen (陳豊丰) said that implied the company would focus on tablets and smartphones. Its original goal was to become the world’s No. 1 PC vendor.
“This is the right direction as the technologies are converging,” Chen said in a research note yesterday.
“The key issue now is who will be Lanci’s successor to lead the company in this new goal,” Chen said. “We believe it is too early to conclude a significant change in Acer’s long-term outlook.”
Acer also said yesterday it would buy back 54 million common shares, or about 2 percent of the company’s total outstanding shares, at NT$55 to NT$100 per share. The share buyback plan will be completed by the end of next month, it said in a statement.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique