Gianfranco Lanci, President and CEO of Acer has stepped down immediately according to a statement released today.  The Taiwan-based multinational PC maker announced that Chairman J.T. Wang has immediately taken over the role for the interim.

Lanci, a former employee at Texas Instruments, went to Acer when they acquired the TravelMate laptop business from TI in 1997.  He became president of the company in 2005, and was named CEO in 2008.

Acer has recently overtaken Dell as the 2nd largest maker of PCs, but has hit a rough patch as of late.  According to Bloomberg:

The resignation comes less than a week after the company lowered its sales forecast, which led to a four-day, 18 percent rout of the stock. Analysts at 10 brokerages including Daiwa Securities Group Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) have lowered their investment ratings on Acer since March 25, citing concerns about earnings.

Lanci’s resignation passed a Board of Directors today, as they explain that they held different views about the direction the company was taking.  From the press release:

On the company’s future development, Lanci held different views from a majority of the board members, and could not reach a consensus following several months’ of dialog. They placed different levels of importance on scale, growth, customer value creation, brand position enhancement, and on resource allocation and methods of implementation.

While the company assures that this change will not affect business as usual, interim CEO J.T. Wang expresses that the company will be moving into the mobile device market.  “Acer needs a period of time for adjustment,” he says.

“In his role as President and CEO, Lanci has contributed significantly toward Acer’s growth. The company expresses its true appreciation for Lanci’s efforts and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors,” said Wang