Acer announced a loss of USD 150 million from suspect inventory and accounts at its EMEA operations. The company said it will provide channels with USD 150 million in sales allowance to clear inventory, which will result in an operating loss of the same amount. Following the recent management change at Acer, the company carried out internal audits of EMEA operations and discovered abnormalities in terms of channel inventory stored in freight forwarders' warehouses, and in the accounts receivable from channels in Spain. The investigation also found areas for "vast improvement" on managing channel inventory and accounts receivable, the company said. As a result of the findings, the company announced plans to streamline its EMEA operations and cut around 300 jobs. The sum of compensation is estimated at USD 30 million, and operating expenses will be reduced annually by the same amount. In addition, Acer's board of directors have voluntarily committed to cut remuneration by 50 percent. The board will also propose for the shareholders' meeting to reduce employee bonuses for 2010 by 40 percent, from TWD 1.5 billion to TWD 900 million. The difference will be allocated for this year's operating expenditure. The cash dividend of TWD 3.6 per share will remain unchanged. Acer chairman and CEO J.T. Wang also took responsibility for the one-time write-off and relinquished his entire remuneration as director on the company board, as well as his employee bonus for 2010.
