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Acer: We're not laying off staff, just shifting 'em out of the PC biz

Heard of the Bring Your Own Cloud unit? You want to be getting in there

Acer is not reacting to the downturn in PC spending by cutting heads – not yet anyway – but it is planning a restructure.

The company confirmed it is in the process of transferring people to the Bring Your Own Cloud wing, which develops a suite of apps for consumers. The revamp will be felt only in Taiwan at this stage.

In typical PR slang, an Acer spokesman told us:

“Organisational adjustment is one of the normal means of optimising company operations as Acer transitions to a hardware + software + services company.”

He refused to provide numbers, but added, “this is mainly domestic in Taiwan”.

Reports in Acer’s native Taiwan stated the organisation was laying off ten to 20 per cent of the workforce there, which would still only equate to between 18 to 38 people. This was denied by the PC maker.

Acer employs around 7,000 people worldwide, so is already one of the leanest businesses in its field. HP Inc, for example, has 60,000 in its PC and printer business from 1 November.

Another rival, Lenovo, is in the process of shedding 3,200 heads worldwide, and HP Inc is expunging 3,300.

Desktops and notebooks accounted for 60 per cent of Acer’s turnover in calendar ’14, but the company isn’t exactly helping to make investors rich – reporting an operating profit for the year of £58.52m.

More recently, turnover in Q2 slumped to a nine-year low and profit was £40,000, albeit better than the loss it reported in the same period of 2014.

Local reports claimed Acer is to adjust the “performance evaluation programme” to encourage more staff to move to the BYOC business. ®

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