Acer bleeds even more money, losing another $311 million during the fourth quarter

There’s more bad news for embattled PC giant Acer, with the Taiwanese company announcing a total operating loss during the fourth quarter of $NT8.22 billion ($A311 million), with senior executives giving themselves a voluntary pay cut.

The result came off consolidated revenues of $NT86.7 billion ($3.2 billion), down 5.9% quarter-on-quarter, meaning the company managed to sell fewer computers in the lead-up to Christmas than it did in the preceding quarter.

The company also announced its preliminary results for the full-year of 2013, with consolidated revenues down 16.2% year-on-year to $NT360.19 billion ($13.6 billion), operating loss of $NT11.37 billion ($430.6 million).

The Taiwanese computer giant, which trades under the Acer, Gateway, Packard Bell, Founder, iGware and ETen brands, also booked a $NT1.3 billion ($49 million) writedown in raw materials inventory and other costs.

In November of last year, Acer announced its consolidated revenues for the third-quarter of 2013 fell 11.8% year-on-year to $US3.11 billion, resulting in an operating loss of $US86.6 million.

Following the announcement, Shih took over as interim chairman and president, following the resignation of former chief executive JT Wang and president Jim Wong.

Chen was subsequently appointed as chief executive in the days leading up to Christmas, and is set to unveil the company’s operations strategy this week.

In its official statement to the market, the tech giant acknowledged overestimating consumer demand for touchscreen notebooks as a factor contributing to the loss.

“Acer acknowledges missteps in the past on resource allocation, and the over expectation of ultrabooks and notebooks with touch panel. Although the products were leading in design they did not accurately fulfil market needs,” Acer says in a statement.

“Taking immediate action, Acer will formulate its product strategy with more caution and implement precise production planning and inventory control.”

The company also announced voluntary salary cuts for senior executives of 30% as a war of “sharing responsibility” for the loss.

The news comes just a week after Acer chairman Stan Shih hosed down speculation of a possible merger with embattled smartphone maker HTC, as Gartner showed the firm’s full-year shipments collapsed a massive 28.1% from 35.7 million units in 2012 to just 25.6 million for 2013.