AMD, which already is looking for a new CEO after the departure of Dirk Meyer in January, is losing Robert Rivet, chief operations and administrative officer, and Marty Seyer, senior vice president of corporate strategy.
Chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices, a month after seeing CEO Dirk Meyer forced out, announced Feb. 9 that two more executives were leaving the company.
Robert Rivet, AMD's chief operations and
administrative officer, and Marty Seyer, senior vice president of
corporate strategy and the company face for many of its product efforts,
are both leaving the company, according to a statement put out by AMD.
"Both are leaving to pursue new opportunities and
are expected to remain through a brief interim period to help ensure
seamless transitions," AMD spokesperson Michael Silverman said in an
e-mail.
For right now, John Docherty, senior vice president
of manufacturing operations, is assuming Rivet's responsibilities-he is
in charge of all aspects of AMD's manufacturing process-and will report
to Thomas Siefert, the company's chief financial officer and acting CEO
until a replacement for Meyer is found. Among Docherty's duties is
overseeing the company's transition to a 32-nanometer manufacturing
process and leading AMD's Global Operations Group, which touches on
everything from testing and packing to supply chain, logistics, and
sales and operations.
Harry Wolin, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for AMD, will oversee the company's corporate strategy unit.
AMD gave no indications about plans for replacing Rivet or Seyer.
Meyer resigned Jan. 10 amid reports of a clash with
the AMD Board of Directors over the direction of the company. According
to analysts, AMD has faltered in its server chip competition with
larger rival Intel, being unable in recent years to build a strong case
for its Opteron chips.
However, a larger issue appears to have been Meyer's decision to forgo a strong push into the exploding tablet and
smartphone spaces. Several months ago, Meyer and his executive team
presented a strategic plan that reportedly disappointed directors, who
were disappointed by AMD's inability to take server market share from
Intel and Meyer's laid-back approach to tablets.
During a conference call with analysts and
journalists in October 2010 to announce quarterly numbers, Meyer said
AMD was taking a slower approach than Intel to the tablet space.
However, he said that when AMD did start bringing tablet products to the
market, they would be strong offerings. That contrasted with Intel's
strategy, which was outlined two days earlier when CEO Paul Otellini
promised that his company will become a key player in the tablet market.
Most tablets and smartphones are powered by
processors based on designs from ARM Holdings and manufactured by the
likes of Samsung, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm. Intel in particular is
looking for ways to expand beyond its traditional server and PC chip
business, and is pushing its Atom platform into new markets like tablets
and smartphones.
AMD's focus has been on its Fusion initiative,
rolling out APUs (accelerated processing units) for PCs that offer
discrete-level graphics technology integrated with the CPU on a single
piece of silicon. Intel has similar offerings with its 2nd Generation Core processors-formerly codenamed "Sandy Brige"-which, like
the first of AMD's Fusion offerings, were introduced at the 2011
Consumer Electronics Show last month.
Analysts have debated the merits of Meyer's
decision to hold back on pursuing the tablet and smartphone markets. For
a company like Intel, with its size and billions of dollars on hand,
using its muscle to push its way into new areas make sense, some
analysts have said. However, AMD does not have the same finances and
must be careful in what its pursues, and given that it has less than 10
percent of the world processor market, there is more opportunity for AMD
to grow in the traditional server and PC markets.
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