Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci Resigns, Netbook Addiction to Blame?

A major shake up is happening at Acer, according to a company press release announcing that Gianfranco Lanci, president and CEO, is resigning effective immediately. It appears the company head disagreed over several months with the majority of board members on the “importance of scale, growth, customer value creation, brand position enhancement, and on resource allocation and methods of implementation.” That’s a mouthful, but we think it really comes down to Acer’s lack of excecution, especially in the mobile space.

Acer has been slow to transition from netbooks to tablets, and the company’s founder recently said Acer would overhaul its operations in response to the iPad, focusing on profit margins instead of market share. Back in 2009, Lanci told us that smart phones would represent 10 percent of the Acer’s revenue, but the company has yet to ship a single handset in the U.S. (though the Iconia Smart is supposedly coming). Acer also had a poor showing in our recently released Best & Worst Laptop Brands survey for 2011; Acer came in second to last.

Acer will move forward with chairman J.T. Wang at the helm, for now. According to the press release, Wang said, “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.” The company plans to focus on PCs, while investing “cautiously” in the mobile device market where they “aim to become one of the leading players.”

via Engadget