AMD's New CEO Confronts Company's Challenges

Dirk Meyer (pictured), the new CEO of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), has a plate full of challenges to deal with as he begins his tenure leading the struggling microprocessor maker.  

In an interview posted on Fortune's Big Tech blog, Meyer, who was appointed to replace longtime AMD CEO Hector Ruiz in July, was relatively straightforward about what the company will do to right the ship. He has already started paring AMD's business lines, announcing last month that the company would sell its digital TV chip business to Broadcom Corp. for $192.9 million.

Meyer told Big Tech that AMD would spin off its chip manufacturing operations by the end of the year, either in an outright sale or via a partnership with another big semi company. Regarding AMD's all-but-disastrous $5.4 billion purchase of graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies Inc. in 2006, he had this to say: "Unfortunately we bought a company some of whose businesses went downhill at the same time ours did. We're in the midst of really lousy financial performance, and it's that piece that we've really got to turn around."

Meyer, who started his career as an engineer at AMD archrival Intel Corp. (INTC), didn't say too much more about how AMD plans to right the ship. But some have predicted AMD will continue to shed some businesses like they did with the Broadcom deal. Wall Street is withholding judgment at the moment, but Meyer's next few moves are going to be scrutinized very closely. - Olaf de Senerpont Domis

See Sept. 8 post on AMD from Big Tech
See Aug. 25 post on AMD selling its DTV chip business from Tech Confidential
See July 18 post on Meyer's appointment from Corporate Dealmaker

Comments

[grovair:]

I am buying AMD now $5.40. I like the fact that 42% of their revenue came from China, while main rival Intel only had 13% of revenue from China. AMD will benefit from the change in exchange rates, as well as their product lineup strength is price/performance compared to rivals from Nvidia(graphics) and Intel(CPU's -especially on servers). Additionally their future lineup looks more promising than rivals. Puma chips with high end integrated graphics are expected to be a hit when they come out next year.

2008 Sep 15 01:02 PM