Neowin.net - AMD CEO Steps Down

AMD CEO Steps Down

Posted by Bezhou Feng on 18 July 2008 - 02:16 · 14 comments & 4190 views

AMD announced today that Hector Ruiz is stepping down from his position as chief executive officer in favor of President and COO Dirk Meyer, who was elected by the board of directors to fill the newly opened position; in turn, will become executive chairman of AMD and chair of the board of directors. Ruiz, 62, joined AMD as president and chief operating officer in January 2000 and became AMD's chief executive officer on April 25, 2002. "AMD has fundamentally altered the industry landscape, leading the innovation agenda while delivering greater choice and better experiences for our customers and users," said Ruiz. "Dirk is a gifted leader who possesses the right skills and experience to continue driving AMD and the industry forward in new, compelling directions. I am placing the company in excellent hands."

"Dirk’s election to CEO is the final phase of a two-year succession plan developed and implemented jointly by AMD’s board of directors and executive team," said Robert Palmer, lead independent director. "Under Hector’s strong leadership, AMD drove the industry adoption of pervasive 64-bit and multicore computing, became a trusted enterprise-class partner to leading technology suppliers and significantly expanded its global footprint in high-growth markets like China."

Thanks for the tip, Nehemoth!

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#1 Posted by Pixil Eyes on 18 Jul 2008 - 02:23: Well, no wonder Hector Ruiz quit as the CEO of AMD earlier today -- the chipmaker just announced its second quarter results, and they're not good. In addition to an overall $269M operating loss, the company is taking an $876M charge against the purchase of ATI so it can abandon the handheld graphics and digital TV markets. To be honest, we hadn't been hearing much about ATI's plans in those areas, so it's probably for the best the company is focusing on getting Barcelona out the door after the launch of Puma -- but we doubt much is going to happen with a power vacuum at the top and a bottom line that's bleeding red.

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They needed it.

(1 reply) #2 Posted by +Recon415 on 18 Jul 2008 - 02:54: All we can do is hope that the new CEO will guide AMD in a better direction. From what I've heard, they're not doing so well at the moment...

#3 Posted by ChrisJ1968 on 18 Jul 2008 - 03:23: AMD hopefully will come back strong. I've been an AMD fan for many years. I've owned only one Intel CPU ever and that was the 133mhz CPU back in 1997. I've owned nothing but AMD from the AMD 120mhz through this AMD64 2700+.

I just like AMD being the underdog, and their prices have been generally good.

(1 reply) #4 Posted by +DrDrrae on 18 Jul 2008 - 05:44: I hope most of you realize competition is a good thing. If AMD didn't hadily beat Intel's P4's, we probably wouldn't have the cards we have today. Even if you don't particularly like AMD, their business is needed in order to keep Intel's and NVIDIA's prices down while still innovating.

#5 Posted by thealexweb on 18 Jul 2008 - 09:37: I think this is a good idea, maybe there after publicity or a better board of executives.

#6 Posted by some_guy on 18 Jul 2008 - 11:38: its about time! Ruiz was all talk and no walk (maybe during the good years he was a good leader)... the guy replacing him looks promising.

(2 replies) #7 Posted by obsolete_power on 18 Jul 2008 - 16:48: "AMD has fundamentally altered the industry landscape, leading the innovation agenda while delivering greater choice and better experiences for our customers and users," said Ruiz. "Dirk is a gifted leader who possesses the right skills and experience to continue driving AMD and the industry forward in new, compelling directions. I am placing the company in excellent hands."

Here is the same quote from Ruiz without the [bull****] [/bull****] tags:

"AMD has fundamentally altered the industry landscape in the late 1990s and early 2000s, leading the innovation agenda while delivering greater choice and better experiences for our customers and users," said Ruiz. "It was all sunshine and happiness until our biggest competitor introduced the Core series microprocessors and AMD has been in a downfall ever since. Our customers expected AMD to take on the Core Duo with an innovative product that would not only offer them more value but unprecedented performance both in professional applications as well as in entertainment applications. Sadly, under my command, this did not take place. Product after product that I have introduced had failed to deliver even a smidge of what the Core Duo and now the new Core 2 Duo made possible. I would like to take this opportunity to bow my head in shame and apologize to both you, the customers as well as to the shareholders whom we've continuously let down for not being able to deliver competitive products. We tried to save the company by acquiring ATI Technologies but that sunk us lower into financial trouble and now our Q2 2008 results show a catastrophic $1.2 billion in losses. Dirk is a gifted leader who possesses the right skills and experience to steer AMD away from almost certain bankruptcy. I was not competent enough to keep this from happening but rest assured that I am placing the dying company in excellent hands. AMD will once again flourish! HEIL HITLER!"

(2 replies) #8 Posted by Mike Frett on 19 Jul 2008 - 00:03: I just bought an AMD CPU and Mobo. My first dual core. I weighed what I did with prices and AMD was my answer. I think I'll be happy with an 4400+ over my current P4 2.8.

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