HTC says no plans to replace top executive

PanARMENIAN.Net - HTC Corp. Chairwoman Cher Wang denied speculation that the smartphone vendor might replace its top executive because of the company's lackluster performance in recent years, Focus Taiwan reports.

Wang said CEO Peter Chou "has done a great job" and that there are no plans to remove him.

She stressed that everyone in the company, including herself, must come down to earth and continue moving forward to cope with the challenges in the smartphone market.

"HTC has many innovative products and will continue to work to introduce our excellent products to everyone in the world," Wang said while attending the Asia-Pacific Cities Summit in Kaohsiung.

In the first eight months of this year, HTC shares fell 47.31 percent, the steepest decline among the 813 companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The company's shares have continued to trend lower since the end of August due to the company's disappointing sales in August and a recent technology leak allegedly involving three employees.

Legal sources said the three allegedly set up their own smartphone companies in Taiwan and China and are likely to work with Chinese smartphone vendors to develop new models using the technology they stole from HTC.

Commenting on the incident, Wang said the technology theft is a criminal act committed by individual employees and she added that the theft will not lead to losses for HTC or impact the company's operations, thanks to the company's "strict management system."

She said HTC will continue to work to expand its presence on the Chinese market.

In July , the company said third-quarter revenue could fall as much as 30 percent from the previous three months, far worse than expected and underscoring deepening troubles for a smartphone maker with little prospect of an immediate turnaround.

HTC said it expects revenue this quarter of T$50 billion to T$60 billion ($1.7 billion to $2 billion), far below a market consensus of T$75.65 billion and its previous quarterly revenue of T$70.7 billion.

Its second-quarter net profit came in at just T$1.25 billion, far below forecasts and followed a record low in the first three months of the year. Its worldwide market share has tumbled to 2.5 percent, compared with a peak of 10.3 percent in the third quarter of 2011, according to research firm Gartner.