Acer appoints third CEO in a year

Chip veteran Jason Chen will take over from the company's founder Stan Shih

Acer, one of the big-five PC vendors, has appointed semiconductor veteran Jason Chen as its CEO, the third chief executive the Taiwanese company has had in a year.

Chen will take over from the company's founder, Stan Shih, who will remain chairman.

The company has endured a turbulent few months, with former CEO JT Wang resigning in November after Acer reported a worse-than-expected quarterly loss of $446m (£272m) for the June to September period. This also led to the Taiwanese company having to reduce its workforce by seven per cent.

Newcomer Chen's first task will be to reinvigoriate the company as its PC business struggles due to competition from tablet computers and smartphones. The company has so far failed to make a mark in the mobile market with its tablet devices.

Chen, who has an MBA and a Bachelor's degree in business administration, has been senior vice-president for sales and marketing at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) since 2008, after joining the company in 2005.

Prior to that, he worked at Intel for 14 years in various sales and marketing roles. He started his career in technology at IBM Taiwan between 1988 and 1991.