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Former Acer boss Gianfranco Lanci has joined Chinese PC-builder Lenovo as a consultant in order to "help develop and accelerate Lenovo’s worldwide consumer business", the company announced.
Lanci will focus on Lenovo’s acquisition of German tech firm Medio in order to help enhance the firm’s consumer presence and the channel throughout Western Europe.
Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang greeted the move: "As a consultant to us, Gianfranco brings years of expertise and insights to Lenovo that will help us strengthen our growing global consumer business."
Lanci was with Acer for eight years and the firm reported a substantial second quarter loss which the Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said was partially the result of executive pay offs.
The size of Lanci’s payout has been rumoured to be as high as $10 million. A Taipei Times source said that the level of the payoff was down to an agreement not to work for a rival manufacturer.
"Everybody has the right to work, but they also have the obligation to fulfill their duties under a contract," said Acer founder Stan Shih on learning of Lanci’s move to Lenovo.
Shih said he wasn’t aware of the nature of the contract, adding: "I believe Acer management will properly deal with the new development."
In start contrast to Acer’s fortunes, Lenovo has experienced a surge in sales and worldwide market share resulting in almost double the year-on-year profit based on last quarter’s financial results.
