Three Senior Executives to Leave AMD

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said three senior executives are leaving the chip maker, the latest sign that Chief Executive Lisa Su is revamping the organization to help find new revenue growth.

The three executives are John Byrne, who served as general manager for AMD's computing and graphics business group; Colette LaForce, the company's chief marketing officer; and Rajan Naik, chief strategy officer. They couldn't be reached for comment.

An AMD spokesman said all three are leaving AMD to pursue new opportunities. He added, "These changes to the leadership team reporting into our CEO are a part of implementing an optimal organization design and leadership team to drive AMD's future growth."

AMD, a much smaller rival of Intel Corp. in microprocessor chips, has managed to place chips in the latest game consoles from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. But its market share has dwindled in chips for PCs and server systems, businesses that account for much of its revenue.

Ms. Su was promoted to the CEO position in October, following the abrupt departure of Rory Read after three years in the job. Soon afterward, AMD reported a 65% drop in third-quarter profit and projected fourth-quarter revenue would be about 13% less than the period ended in September. Most analysts had expected AMD's fourth-quarter results to be flat or slightly higher.

AMD also announced plans in October to trim its workforce by about 7%.

Under Ms. Su, the company has recruited new senior managers, including Forrest Norrod from Dell Inc. and James Clifford from RF Micro Devices Inc. It also has moved to keep others. AMD disclosed Monday that retention stock awards had been issued to Mark Papermaster, senior vice president and chief technology officer, and Devinder Kumar, a senior vice president and chief financial officer.

In an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Ms. Su admitted that the company has some things to prove to customers.

But she argued that hardware buyers, particularly those that need servers, want more competition among vendors. She added that AMD is the only company that can use the same x86 technology as Intel, while it is also starting to sell chips for servers based on the ARM Holdings PLC technology used in mobile devices.

"The customer is very receptive," she said.

Write to Don Clark at [e-mail]

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