Acer taken over by old blood to get company back on track

Hexus writes Acer founder Stan Shis is taking over as chairman and president with immediate effect. Previously we heard that Acer CEO and Chairman J.T. Wang's position would be replaced by Acer president Jim Wong on January 1st, 2014 but these plans are now cancelled. Wong and Wang will be retained as advisors during the transition, before both their resignations come into effect.

Shih says he must stand up and take the reign without salary to carry out the company's transformation. He will be joined by George Huang, one of the co-founding partners of Acer.

Acer hasn't performed well in recent years. A couple of years ago it looked like the firm would become world's largest PC shipper but since then the company's marketshare collapsed and it posted five quarterly losses in two years.

What prompted this large strategy shift isn’t known but it seems like Shih feels his leadership is needed to turn the company around and got the backing of the Board of directors to implement this change “in light of the company’s recent performance”. He will be joined on the management team by one of the co-founding partners of Acer, George Huang, in what seems like an injection of old blood (it’s usually ‘new blood’).

In a statement about the news Stan Shih said, “Due to the situation that now faces Acer and my personal social responsibilities, I must stand up and take the reign without salary.” He added “I will also fully support Acer’s ICT device business and carry out the company transformation,” despite the many public affairs and engagements he is already committed to.