AMD Appoints Thomas Seifert as Interim CEO; Dirk Meyer Resigns

[caveman-jim]

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Senior Vice President and CFO Thomas Seifert, 47, as interim CEO following the resignation of Dirk Meyer, 49, as president, CEO and a director of the company effective immediately.

A CEO Search Committee has been formed to begin the search for a new CEO. The Committee is led by Bruce Claflin, Chairman of AMD's Board of Directors, who has been named Executive Chairman of the Board as he assumes additional oversight responsibilities during the transition period. Seifert will maintain his current responsibilities as CFO and has asked not to be considered for the permanent CEO position.

"Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives including the launch of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the successful settlement of our litigation with Intel and delivering Fusion APUs to the market," said Claflin.

"However, the Board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time. This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns. We believe a change in leadership at this time will accelerate the company's ability to accomplish these objectives."

Seifert joined AMD in 2009, and has more than 20 years of general management, global operations and financial management expertise. Immediately prior to joining AMD, Seifert served as COO and CFO of Qimonda AG, where he led the formation and subsequent IPO of the company. At Infineon AG, Seifert served as senior vice president and general manager in its Wireless Business Group.

In commenting on Seifert, Claflin said, "During his tenure at AMD, Thomas helped strengthen the company's balance sheet while demonstrating strong leadership and winning the respect of his peers. His operations and finance experience make him an excellent choice to guide the company as interim CEO."

"AMD enters 2011 with considerable product and financial momentum. Our roadmap for the year, including our 'Llano' APU and 32nm 'Bulldozer' based processors remain on track," said Seifert. "I believe we have significant opportunities to cement our leadership positions in several key market segments based on the strength of our upcoming products."

Source - AMD Press Release

Will Former ATI VP Rick Bergman throw his hat in the ring for the AMD CEO Position?

[erek]

Financial Analysts Criticize Step Down of AMD's Chief Executive.

Analysts Consider Dirk Meyer's Resignation a Bad Sign

Even though officially AMD considers resignation of Dirk Meyer, the former chief executive officer, as a way to improve the value of the company, financial analysts that cover AMD see the departure of the CEO as a bad sign for the company. Some market observers even consider the exit of the CEO a new drama for the company.

"Consensus is clearly negative on AMD’s ability to execute, but our work (and Mr. Meyer’s resignation) suggests these concerns might even be worse than many fear. With the 32nm ramp at GlobalFoundries delayed, and the ability to value-price Fusion products in some doubt, we see no reason to move off our negative bias," Daniel Berenbaum, an analyst with Auriga investment firm, wrote in a note to clients, reports Barron's web-site.

...(please visit the source link for much more detailed information)

Source: XbitLabs

[sebazve]

AMD had its glory days when they released the K7 architecture but now Intel is releasing new chips like clockwork and the only thing AMD can do is to decrease prices to be able to compete. You can't expect to be the leader on the market with that strategy.

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by sebazve

AMD had its glory days when they released the K7 architecture but now Intel is releasing new chips like clockwork and the only thing AMD can do is to decrease prices to be able to compete. You can't expect to be the leader on the market with that strategy.

Fortunately, AMD are not doing that. This year they will be launching two new x86 microarchitectures, Bobcat and Bulldozer. Bobcat based products were demonstrated at CES 2011, and Bulldozer procs look set to be delivered around Q3.

This information was known for a long time in 2010, with a preview of the architecture given at Hot Chips 22 (link above).