HTC replaces CEO Peter Chou

HTC replaces its CEO, Peter Chou. Chairman of the board Cher Wang takes over. Chou will take on a ‘new strategic role’ in the company, as head of HTC’s Future Development Lab. HTC has been struggling with mediocre results for several years now.

Bloomberg reports this on the basis of a statement from HTC. The Taiwanese company has been struggling with poor results and a shrinking market share for several years, including by Samsung and recently Xiaomi. In the past quarter, the company made more profit for the first time in years than the quarter before.

Chou co-founded HTC in 1997 with Wang and has been CEO since 2003. Although Chou managed to transform the company as CEO from a manufacturer for other people’s telephones to a manufacturer that released products under his own brand name, in recent years there has been dissatisfaction with the course Chou was taking. In October 2013, Wang already got a more important role in HTC, including overseeing the day-to-day business. In doing so, Chou focused more on the development of new products. It was time to formalize those roles, HTC says.

Chou’s resignation doesn’t mean he has to look for another job: HTC wants to keep him on board as head of HTC’s Future Development Lab. It is not yet clear what his exact job description is.