Acer appoints former TSMC executive Chen as new CEO

December 24, Acer said in Monday that the company has appointed former TSMC global business and marketing senior deputy general manager Chen Jun-San (Jason Chen) as CEO and president. This is part of the Acer Revival plan.

In a statement, Acer said Chen San will take up his position next January 1. For more than 20 years at Intel and TSMC, he has been engaged in sales and marketing work.

This is the third time in nearly 2 months that Acer has changed its cool. Acer's chairman, Wang, and President Wong resigned as a result of the company's poor performance, and the founder Shih the company's chairman in late November. The statement said Shih will continue to serve as Chairman of the board after Chen.

Acer's personnel change comes as the PC industry is in a precarious position. PC shipments will shrink by 2 digits this year as consumers increasingly use mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets in their work and entertainment. To revive its former glory, Dell has retreated from the city this fall.

As part of the transition effort, Acer has increased its efforts to develop cloud services and recently launched a Low-cost smartphone. Acer said in November that the company would restructure and lay off 7% per cent of its staff by 100 million dollars a year from next year.

Acer's notebook sales have been slipping. Acer's net loss in the third quarter was NT $13.12 billion (about 2.72 billion yuan), mainly due to write-downs of assets due to asset depreciation and poor sales.