Acer who is struggling under a sea of excess PC inventory has moved to sack over 300 staff around the world, as it struggles to compete in a market where Apple tablets and Mac computers are grabbing market share away from the Taiwanese Company.
Acer who is struggling under a sea of excess PC inventory has moved to sack over 300 staff around the world, as it struggles to compete in a market where Apple tablets and Mac computers are grabbing market share away from the Taiwanese Company.
It is not known whether any staff in Australia will be retrenched however it is known that staff in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) will be hit by the sackings.
Recently, Acer offered retailers $150 million to clear inventory and disputed accounts receivable in its EMEA operations.
Affected by the inventory issue, Acer is reducing its target for tablet PC shipments to over 50 percent, from the original target of 5-7 million to only 2.5-3 million units. Nonetheless, Wang is still optimistic that PC sales will improve in 4Q11.
In Australia Acer has said that they are hoping to sell 125,000 tablets this year.
Earlier this year the Company sacked their CEO Gianfranco Lanci due to the Company failing to meet profit and revenue forecasts.
Shortly afterwards JT Wang, Acer’s chairman and temporary CEO came out and said that he wanted Acer to be more like Apple.
Acer’s profit margin in the last fiscal year was just 2.3 percent compared to Apple’s 21.5 percent.
“The planned layoff of 300 staff will be carried out in the next few months,” said Acer chairman and CEO JT Wang at a shareholder meeting today.
