Acer Chief Resigns After Split With Board Over Mobile Computing

Acer CEO and President Gianfranco Lanci has stepped down from his role as head of the company effective immediately; the company cites a divisive split over its future between Lanci and the board of directors.

Chairman J.T. Wang will take the role of acting chief executive in the interim, the company announced. The board of directors approved the resignation at a recent meeting.

The reason Lanci resigned was because he wasn't able to reach a consensus in several months of dialogue with the majority of the board about the future of the company. According to Acer, the board and Lanci assigned different levels of importance to scale, growth, customer value creation, brand position enhancement, resource allocation and methods of implementation.

While Acer remains strongly focused on personal computers, Lanci was a proponent of mobile computing. This seems to be the heart of the disagreement between Lanci and the rest of the company.

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, Wang said in a statement,

In this new ICT industry, 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.

Lanci took over as CEO in 2004. Under his direction, the company grew to become the number two PC manufacturer in the world, according Gartner. However, in recent times it has struggled to keep up with the emergence of tablets. Last quarter its sales fell 10 percent whereas analysts had expected it to only drop 3 percent. The company's shares have fallen dramatically -- 18 percent -- since it revised its outlook for the year.

The quick takeaway is pointing fingers and making a scapegoat out of Lanci, blaming the downward revision of sales guidance on him. We expect more short-term volatility to the share price as [Acer's] management tries to formulate a new strategy, Deutsche Bank said in a note to clients.