TAIPEI: The chief executive of Taiwan's leading personal computer maker Acer Inc. has resigned, the company said Friday, citing differing views over the future of the firm which faces slowing demand for PCs.
The departure of chief executive officer and president Gianfranco Lanci, an Italian, comes after Acer, which is trying to branch into the tablet market, said its first-quarter profits would fall short of expectations.
"On the company's future development, Lanci held different views from a majority of the board members, and could not reach a consensus following several months' of dialogue," Acer said in a statement.
"They placed different levels of importance on scale, growth, customer value creation, brand position enhancement, and on resource allocation and methods of implementation," it said, adding the board approved the resignation Thursday.
Acer chairman J.T. Wang, who will take on Lanci's role in the interim, said the company aims to become a leading player in the new mobile device market, including smartphones and tablets.
"We have to change our business strategy as the PC industry landscape has changed a lot with the rise of tablets and multiple PC operating systems," he said.
"We may need to adjust our full-year guidance (on earnings forecasts) after finalising our new business structure by the end of May."
Acer, the world's second-biggest PC manufacturer, started shipping tablets in March but faces stiff competition from Apple's well-established iPad. Wang said it aims to roll out 5-7 million tablets this year.
The company has said its PC revenue fell about 10 percent as of March 25 from the fourth quarter of last year, due to weaker demand in Western Europe and the United States.
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