Intel reportedly spoke with HP PC executive Todd Bradley about moving to the chip maker, a move seen as Intel strengthening its lineup of possible successors to CEO Paul Otellini. Bradley has opted to stay with HP.
Intel reportedly was in discussions with Hewlett-Packard's top PC executive
about taking a senior management position with the giant chip maker, a move
some saw as Intel going outside the company to expand the list of potential
candidates to fill the CEO slot when Paul
Otellini eventually retires.
According
to a
Wall
Street Journal report March 21, Intel had been speaking to Todd
Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group. Bradley, who
had been considered a
top
candidate for HP's CEO job last year when Mark Hurd was forced to resign
following questions over personal misconduct, earlier this month opted to stay
with the PC maker, the Wall Street Journal said, citing anonymous sources.
The
HP CEO job eventually went to former SAP
chief Leo Apotheker.
Spokespeople
for both HP and Intel declined to comment, according to the WJS.
The
courting of Bradley appears to be a reflection on the current state of Intel
management, particularly given Otellini's future. The CEO
is 60 and is expected to retire when he turns 65. He is the fifth CEO
in Intel's history, and like his predecessors, Otellini came up through the
ranks at the chip maker.
However,
over the past two years, Intel has seen some significant changes in its
executive lineup. In September 2009, longtime Intel executive Pat Gelsinger,
who had headed up Intel's core processing business, left after almost three
decades with the company, taking a high-profile job with storage vendor EMC.
That
move set off a
management
reorganization within Intel that included elevating Sean Maloney, another
longtime Intel executive, and David "Dadi" Perlmutter to lead the
company's newly created Intel Architecture Group. Analysts also saw Maloney's
promotion as an indication that Intel wanted to position him to possibly
succeed Otellini as CEO.
However,
last year
Maloney
suffered a stroke and only returned to the company in January, working
part-time. It's still unclear when Maloney will be able to resume his position
on a full-time basis. An Intel spokesperson said Maloney, who has been with
Intel since 1982, is undergoing speech therapy and continues to improve.
The
spokesperson also said there is no rush to find a successor for Otellini, given
that his retirement is still five years away.
"We've
got a CEO who is in his prime," she
told the Wall Street Journal. "There's a lot of time to groom a lot of
different people."
Still,
analysts said companies like Intel tend to want to have a succession plan in
place well before the current CEO leaves.
This
also comes at a time when Intel is looking to expand its reach beyond its core
PC and server chip business, pushing aggressively into such areas as
smartphones, tablets and embedded devices. Otellini has said Intel, with its
growing portfolio of energy-efficient Atom chips, will become a major player in
the burgeoning tablet space now dominated by chips based on designs from ARM
Holdings. Intel-based tablets are expected to begin hitting the market in
earnest later this year, followed by Atom-powered smartphones.
Email
Print
