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HTC CEO Peter Chou has appointed Jason Mackenzie to head its shaky US operations, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing an internal email. The company's US arm has been in disarray since a number of prominent people — including chief product officer Kouji Kodera and VP of global communications Jason Jordan — departed in May. Several others, including Asia CEO Lennard Hoornik and chief operating officer Matthew Costello followed shortly after.
Mackenzie has been a public face for the company at press events, taking the reigns as president of global sales last year after serving as president for the Americas from 2010 to 2011. Under the new assignment, Mackenzie will reportedly be running US operations on top of his current global sales duties. As part of the same shakeup, Chou is also creating a new business unit under the name Emerging Devices to be led by the current president of HTC North America, Mike Woodward, reports the WSJ. The division will reportedly focus on new HTC products and "global distribution strategies."
HTC’s two biggest releases this year — the vaunted One flagship and the First (with Facebook’s Home user experience) — have done little to reverse the company’s plunging bottom line. Profits fell to $41 million last quarter — a nearly 85-percent drop from the previous year.
