In light of recent disappointing financial results, Acer chairman and CEO J.T Wang has announced that he will be stepping down starting in the new year.

Wang's resignation will become effective as of January 1st, but reports say the soon-to-be former CEO will maintain his position on the board to finalize previous engagements until Q2 2014. Current Acer president Jim Wong is reported to be replacing Wang as CEO once he finally departs the company next year.

"Acer encountered many complicated and harsh challenges in the past few years. With the consecutive poor financial results, it is time for me to hand over the responsibility to a new leadership team to path the way for a new era," Wang said in a statement regarding his resignation.

J.T Wang, as we previously mentioned, is stepping down due to poor numbers, which dropped nearly 35% in Q3. The company experienced much wider losses than anticipated at $446 million USD compared to the $109 million analysts expected. "Q3's operating loss was mainly due to the gross margin impact of gearing up for the Windows 8.1 sell-in and the related management of inventory," the company said in a statement pertaining to the disappointing third quarter losses. Acer is expected to cut around 7% of its global staff, which would save around $100 million in yearly operating costs as a result.

Another interesting point here is that Acer, the fourth largest PC maker on the planet, experienced significant losses in a quarter when the three competitors above them in the list - Lenovo, Dell and HP - actually reported some form of small growth during the same time period.

(Image via Reuters/Pichi Chuang)