Dirk Meyer Resigns From AMD
Dirk Meyer is no longer AMD's chief executive officer, after resigning late yesterday.
In a statement, Bruce Claflin, chairman of AMD's board of directors, stated that 'the Board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time. This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns. We believe a change in leadership at this time will accelerate the company’s ability to accomplish these objectives.'
The resignation of Meyer comes at a time when AMD is forging ahead with its Fusion range of Accelerated Processor Units (APUs), but also at a time when its finances aren't in great shape.
With rival chipmaker Intel boasting record revenues in the year just gone, it's clear that Meyer is taking the fall for his company's poor performance over the last year.
In a statement, Meyer said that 'my 15 years at AMD have included some amazing high points. I wish the company well as AMD focuses successfully on the road ahead.'
Despite the obvious signs of a loss of directorial confidence, Claflin described Meyer's time as CEO in glowing terms, stating that 'Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilised AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives including the launch of GlobalFoundries, the successful settlement of our litigation with Intel and delivering Fusion APUs to the market.'
Chief financial officer Thomas Seifert will take over as interim chief executive while the board of directors searches for a permanent replacement.
Was AMD's board right to push out Meyer, or is it unfairly using him as a scapegoat while attempting to increase shareholder confidence in the company? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyAMD should be even more dominate and the favorite among Hardware manufactures because of AMD' cheaper prices but Intel still holds a large margin in this department and I feel this is why the OLD blood had to go. 15 years is good enough, AMD is looking to finally make an upgrade.
With Intel and nVidia teaming up ( http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/01/intelnvidia-bombshell-look-for-nvidia-gpu-on-intel-processor-die.ars ) AMD is really going to need to stay strong over the next few years to survive.
I can't wait for the day when an AMD CPU is really competitive with Intel on more than just price. I want to see an AMD answer to Sandy Bridge that really shakes things up and gets us making comparisons at the high end instead of just relegating AMD to the budget-conscious choice.
I suspect that's more of an R&D thing than something that the CEO of the company would have a huge impact on, but maybe Meyer's replacement could inspire that.
Wishful thinking, maybe.
What a bunch of marketing
Maybe paying the price for the lateness of Bulldozer? Will be a shame if AMD turns the corner in 2011 and Dirk M gets no recognition for it though.
this mistake is so vast that there are people i know with an amd cpu in their own computer that even has the amd logo on it and they claim they never heard of the company.
THAT is where you know marketing fails.
i'm an amd fan and i hope they succeed but they don't get themselves known like intel.
Bad dice Dirk.
I think you might be right. Why else would they push out a CEO that returned them to profitability after the troubles AMD was in a few years ago. Either something has gone terribly wrong within AMD or a buyout is in sight.
But Dave Haynie never made it to CEO of Commodore, did he? Perhaps if Dirk had stayed in tech leadership the Athlon II might have made the same kind of waves the original Athlon did. I suspect he's made his money and is happy to move on - lets just see where he ends up - ARM maybe? ;)
Sid Meier's the one you're looking for.
Yeah, this guy here made soft porn movies. ;P
And then drove them off it again!
They have nothing of any value to bring to the table as things stand today, in either CPU, GPU or combined. Unless you are a die hard fan of AMD, why would you buy their products today?
New Blood is needed to lead this company. This could be the best move the board have made in the last 15 years!
Now, AMD. Isn't it about time that you said to hell with cheap cpu's and started making some that can actually compete with Intel? It isn't exactly like people will stop using computers if they can no longer buy the cheapest cpu's, in terms of price and performance. If it's actually good it'll be bought, regardless of price, as long as you don't try to sell higher than Intel. I don't think you have the brain-pool to outdo them though. Better qualified designers and technical personnel demand higher wages but are completely necessary to compete and will keep you from ultimately going even further down the tubes. You have to spend money to make money. If you want the best cpu's then people will also have to pay. Or buy themselves a sliderule and use smoke signals to ask each other "Can you play Crysis on yours?"