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Thursday, 7 November 2013

Acer CEO gets the chop after failing to turnaround tumbling sales

This thing probably didn't help

It's tough times for Taiwan-based company Acer, which has seen its CEO J.T. Wang step down following less-than-stellar financial results. It's the second tech casualty in a week following the departure of BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins, who exited the company after it failed to secure a buyer.

The world's fourth-biggest computer maker saw sales plunge 11% year-on-year to $3.11 billion (around £1.9 billion, or AU$34.9 billion) during the quarter ending October 31.

It posted an operating loss of $86.61 billion (around £54 billion, or AU$91.3 billion), which the company put down to readying Windows 8.1 devices and related inventory management.

Acer hasn't exactly shied away from experimentation in the Windows 8 arena - its flawed Iconia W3 was the first 8-inch tablet featuring Microsoft's tactile OS - and its hinge-toting R7 laptop took the unconventional approach of putting the trackpad above the keyboard.

But the company has struggled to bolster computer sales in the face of an increasingly competitive tablet market and weak global demand for laptops. It saw global PC shipments drop by 34.5 per cent year-on-year during the quarter, according to market watcher IDC.

Wang, who has led the company since 2008, will step down as CEO on January 1 but will stay on as chairman until the second quarter of 2014.

He is being succeeded by Acer President Jim Wong, who will be tasked with leading a significant restructuring program that will see 7% of the company's work force laid off, a move expected to save the company in the region of $100 million a year from 2014.

Though Acer says that it expects shipments for its notebooks, tablet PCs and Chromebooks to decrease by 10% in Q4 compared to the previous quarter, it expects profits to improve.

Friday, 19 April 2013

EU says member states failing to crack down on human trafficking

European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom addresses a news conference on ''Tackling human trafficking'' at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels April 15, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Francois Lenoir

BRUSSELS | Mon Apr 15, 2013 1:40pm EDT

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Thousands of people are falling victim to human traffickers every year in the European Union but most member states have failed to implement tougher new laws agreed by the bloc to address the problem, the European Commission said on Monday.

The new laws, agreed in 2011, impose higher penalties on offenders, make it easier to prosecute across borders within the bloc and give better protection to victims.

Only six countries in the 27-member bloc have implemented the new legislation so far, the Commission said.

Trafficking victims are typically women and they are predominantly forced into sexual slavery, but also hard labor and criminal activity. Some have their organs removed.

Information released by the EU executive on Monday showed the number of identified trafficking victims increased by 18 percent between 2008 and 2010 to about 10,000, although that number likely represents a fraction of all victims.

"What we know is probably only the tip of the iceberg," said Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU commissioner for home affairs.

"I am very disappointed to see that, despite these alarming trends, only a few countries have implemented the anti-trafficking legislation and I urge those who have not yet done so to respect their obligations."

Most of the victims identified were citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, the two poorest members of the bloc. Neither country has implemented the new laws.

EU governments which do not implement common rules can face legal action and fines.

An estimated nearly 21 million people worldwide are victims of human trafficking, according to 2012 statistics from the International Labor Organization.

(Reporting By Teddy Nykiel; Editing by Pravin Char)

View the original article here