Acer on Tuesday confirmed that J.T. Wang will step down as chairman and CEO.

President Jim Wong will step in as CEO, effective Jan. 1. Wang will remain chairman until the end of his term in June.

The firm also announced a major restructuring that will include layoffs and ditching existing products.

“Acer encountered many complicated and harsh challenges in the past few years,” Wang said in a statement. “With the consecutive poor financial results, it is time for me to hand over the responsibility to a new leadership team to path the way for a new era.”

In a joint statement, Acer’s board of directors said it was “grateful” for Wang’s contributions.

“The past two to three years have been extremely tough for Acer due to the rapidly changing industry and market conditions,” the board said. “We fully respect Wang’s decision to step down; however, in the interest of ensuring company stability and a smooth transition during this latest restructuring and transformation, we have asked J.T. to remain to complete his tenure as Chairman which ends in June 2014.”

Acer has struggled to compete against tablet behemoths like Apple and Samsung, with the company’s Iconia tablet lineup failing to make the grade against the iPad, as well as the Samsung Galaxy Tab/Note and even Google’s Nexus 7 from LG. It doesn’t really have a foothold in the smartphone market either. Most recently, it showed off a phablet at September’s IFA trade show.

To combat this, Wang said the company has “crafted a far-reaching plan for Acer’s transformation.” That includes the creation of an advisory committee that “will propose changes in the company vision, strategy, and execution plans for the board’s approval.”

Former Acer executive Stan Shih will serve as chairman of the committee. “After making structural adjustments, we will introduce more competitive products within the existing PC, tablet, and smartphone business and stabilize our market share,” he said. “This will be the basis of our transformation and for developing new business opportunities.”

Acer’s new direction will include a 7 percent workforce reduction, as well as “product plan termination,” though it did not elaborate on which gadgets will get the boot.