Acer CEO JT Wang has announced his decision to resign from the consumer electronics company following poor financial results and struggling PC sales. Wang will step down from the CEO position on January 1, but will remain chairman until the second quarter of 2014.

Acer president Jim Wong will become its new CEO.

Despite being the fourth-largest PC maker in the world, Acer has been forced to watch its PC sales decline 35 percent recently while competitors HP, Lenovo, and Dell have enjoyed small growth. During the third quarter of 2012, the company reported a net loss of $446 million, which was worse than previous forecasts predicted.

The loss was blamed on “the gross margin impact of gearing up for the Windows 8.1 sell-in and the related management of inventory,” Acer said in a statement today, before announcing plans to reduce its workforce by 7 percent in an effort to save $100 million in expenses.

• ViaReuters