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AS OF 12/4/2008 12:32AM EST

Ruiz out as CEO of AMD, but Stays on as Chairman
By Robert Mullins, Special to Systems Management News

July 18, 2008 — Beleaguered microprocessor maker AMD was confined to the boardroom yesterday, the same day the company reported dismal financial results.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company announced that the AMD board had named Dirk Meyer, at the time the president and COO, to replace Hector Ruiz as CEO. Ruiz, who had been at the helm for six years, will stay on as executive chairman and chair of the company’s board.

The company described his new role as ensuring “a smooth executive leadership transition.” The announcement also described the personnel change as “the final phase of a two-year succession plan developed and implemented jointly by AMD’s board of directors and executive team.”

AMD had long been struggling against Intel in the market for the chips that run the world’s computer and servers. But in 2003, AMD got the jump on Intel by developing the first commodity 64-bit architecture CPUs. Intel’s didn’t come out until 2004.

But more recently, AMD has had a hard time matching that success. For instance, its quad-core Opteron processors, launched in 2007, have suffered production delays and performance problems that forced the departure of its CTO, Phil Hester, in April.

AMD reported a US$1.2 billion net loss, or $1.96 per share, on revenue of $1.35 billion in the quarter that ended on June 28, worse than the net loss of $600 million, or $1.09 a share, on $1.31 billion in revenue in the year-ago quarter.

Adding insult to injury, prestige client DreamWorks Animation announced on July 8 that it was switching from AMD to Intel chips for its servers; the company is perhaps best known for the animation hits “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda.”

Related Search Term(s): Processors, AMD, Intel

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