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Lisa Su is now CEO of AMD

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Phynaz said:
When did Read announce he was stepping down? Oh, wait, he didn't.

Maybe because English isn't your native language you are missing the nuance of the whole thing.
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I miss nothing, just that i m not doing hasardous speculations.

It was known apparently in the industry, such decisions are not rendered public before they are actualy acted.

In this case, my natural skepticism is dampened by a nugget I picked up at CES back in January. It wasn't anything I could report, but a well-placed industry source suggested to me that Dr. Su would very likely replace Read as AMD's CEO "within the next six months."
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http://techreport.com/blog/27183/amd-ceo-transition-is-a-natural-next-step
 
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I saw this mentioned on another forum:

http://techreport.com/blog/27183/amd-ceo-transition-is-a-natural-next-step

In this case, my natural skepticism is dampened by a nugget I picked up at CES back in January. It wasn't anything I could report, but a well-placed industry source suggested to me that Dr. Su would very likely replace Read as AMD's CEO "within the next six months." Of course, since this is AMD, the schedule was optimistic, but that prediction proved accurate—and it lends credibility to the notion that this move was in the works for a while.
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Ryan Smith said:
Rory's job was to fix the company and find the next Jerry. I think he has done well in both regards. Lisa Su is an extremely capable person whom if she wasn't CEO at AMD, would eventually be the CEO at a similar technology company.
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I agree strongly with this. Read would not have had the knowledge about the semiconductor industry required to be making the decisions that a CEO is supposed to make. He did have great business knowledge though, and saved AMD from destruction. They're not out of the woods yet though, and at this point they need to somehow become competitive again in the CPU space, despite their limited funds, or else they'll be yet another fizzled-out semico.

I'm very interested in the direction that AMD will take from here. Honestly, the thing I look most forward to is clearer roadmaps, as there is nothing more likely to instill confidence in me for the company. I couldn't invest in AMD right now, as their plans are just so unclear. I hope that Lisa Su sees the value in clear communication, and we start to see great products on the horizon.
 
monstercameron said:
any more commentary? is that a good thing or bad thing[or maybe that is too simple a question?]?
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Possibly good for AMD, maybe not good for the likes of us who are expecting high-end parts for traditional markets (high-end discrete graphics, HEDT). AMD's has already cut quite a bit. Their new partnership with Synopsys included the latter company hiring away many of AMD's engineers (most likely related to auxiliary tech like interconnects), and AMD previously said they would be outsourcing their chipset design to ASMedia. Sounds to me like they don't plan to create any new premium in-house designed features, instead they're going to focus on their core IPs (CPU and GPU). And, of course, they've already made it clear they want to transition away from x86 towards ARM in the long run.

I guess the only way to know is to wait and see.
 
USER8000 said:
I saw this mentioned on another forum:

http://techreport.com/blog/27183/amd-ceo-transition-is-a-natural-next-step
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The fact that he heard someone taking about a hypothesis doesn't mean that the transition was agreed, especially because this is happening 4 months after she took the COO role. Why bother with creating and giving the role to Lisa Su when she was supposed to take the CEO role a few months down the road? And why bother the investors with sudden news when they could do a staged, controlled transition if things were really already in place? Sorry, I don't buy it. Succession plan my ***.
 
mrmt said:
The fact that he heard someone taking about a hypothesis doesn't mean that the transition was agreed, especially because this is happening 4 months after she took the COO role. Why bother with creating and giving the role to Lisa Su when she was supposed to take the CEO role a few months down the road? And why bother the investors with sudden news when they could do a staged, controlled transition if things were really already in place? Sorry, I don't buy it. Succession plan my ***.
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Why does it matter, exactly? Who cares if he was fired or not?
 
Vesku said:
Just points to AMD not completing their turnaround anytime soon.
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That's already pretty clear, no? Graphics definitely aren't going to save them, as they were never a big money maker for them, and they're arguably in the toughest spot vs. Nvidia they've been in since they purchased ATI. And their CPU offerings are laughable, really, and that's not changing anytime soon.
 
Homeles said:
Why does it matter, exactly? Who cares if he was fired or not?
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Because if the BoD had released a statement saying that Read left for "personal reasons" or that he will be leaving in 6 months to a year or any public statement about Read's transition plans at all, that would mean the BoD thinks AMD's turnaround plan is basically done and Read did his job well.

Instead, we got a quiet notice that Lisa Su is now CEO. Read between the lines and it means Read was fired, the BoD was not happy with something he did or did not manage to do, and that more importantly, AMD's turnaround is still incomplete or flawed in some way.

The difference is the internal company confidence in the leaving CEO and the state of the company he is leaving. That shows whether AMD thinks it is done fixing the damage. Su basically says that she will have to do some more damage control.
 
Revolution 11 said:
Because if the BoD had released a statement saying that Read left for "personal reasons" or that he will be leaving in 6 months to a year or any public statement about Read's transition plans at all, that would mean the BoD thinks AMD's turnaround plan is basically done and Read did his job well.

Instead, we got a quiet notice that Lisa Su is now CEO. Read between the lines and it means Read was fired, the BoD was not happy with something he did or did not manage to do, and that more importantly, AMD's turnaround is still incomplete or flawed in some way.

The difference is the internal company confidence in the leaving CEO and the state of the company he is leaving. That shows whether AMD thinks it is done fixing the damage. Su basically says that she will have to do some more damage control.
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An informed individual should already have seen that AMD still has work left to do, though. Whether or not Rory Reed was fired should make no difference to them.
 
Yes there is work to be done but the extent of that work and what outcome the company executives expect at the end of that work can differ greatly. A ordered transition means the outcome is expected to be positive.

The CEO is only fired when the results are either not meeting the planned outcomes or when the planned outcomes are not reliable or believable. Barring any personal or ethical scandals....
 
Homeles said:
An informed individual should already have seen that AMD still has work left to do, though. Whether or not Rory Reed was fired should make no difference to them.
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Work left to do? The point is that the BoD firing Rory is an acknowledgement that the strategy isn't working and they need to go in a different direction. Maybe he clashed with the board about changes; maybe Q3 is so bad that they needed a fall guy.
 
jpiniero said:
Work left to do? The point is that the BoD firing Rory is an acknowledgement that the strategy isn't working and they need to go in a different direction. Maybe he clashed with the board about changes; maybe Q3 is so bad that they needed a fall guy.
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Is Q3 the first quarter where we get to see how successful or not, Kaveri has been in the marketplace?
 
Phynaz said:
Actually in the US they have to be disclosed to the public by law. It's why CEO's announce that they will be stepping down a year in advance.
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Thoughts of CEO changes do not have to be stated to the public at all.
 
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The only reason he would be let go so suddenly before the holidays are three reasons.

Personal misconduct
Extremely unprofitable and need to make shareholders happy before holidays.
Already planned and they wanted to kick start the new year with the changes already in place.
 
Zstream said:
The only reason he would be let go so suddenly before the holidays are three reasons.

Personal misconduct
Extremely unprofitable and need to make shareholders happy before holidays.
Already planned and they wanted to kick start the new year with the changes already in place.
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I'm doubtful of the third option only because Rory is abducating his positions across the board - stepping down from the position of President and CEO as well as from his Board of Directors position.

Had this been an intentional transition of CEO responsibilities then Rory would have likely been retained in his Board of Directors position for a while longer.

The only thing that really makes much sense to me here is that Rory must have just learned of having some sort of terribly critical medical calamity (cancer or some such) that requires him to basically immediately stop working and seek aggressive treatments that for the most part will render him incapable of performing his job effectively.

If that were the case, I could see why AMD and Rory might not want to communicate that to the public as it would certainly rattle shareholders even more in the sense that it would be tantamount to saying "we are throwing Lisa Su into the CEO prematurely because of Rory's medical situation, if only she had more time and experience before we promoted her on our original schedule, then the company would be better off".

By keeping it under wraps, it would help reduce the perception that would otherwise exist in terms of just how ready Lisa Su is or was for the sudden promotion to the top job.

That is speculation, of course, but if it is true then I hope for the best for Rory while he deals with whatever manner of medical emergency has beset him.
 
I'm more than a little surprised that they didn't wait until after earnings to announce this. Doesn't seem like a good omen.
 
Lisa is by far the best CEO AMD ever had. She is damn intelligent, sharp and competent, what is quite obvious from the public meatings. Especially next to cowboy Roy...

As Pablo and i have written years ago, she is also the brains behind what happened at AMD. Dont think the transistion is RR work - because its not his strategy - its hers. And as we said then, she would be a fine CEO. Now she have to prove that. Its only because she is not a white man and pure chance, it took so long for her to get in such a CEO position.

And lets hope that for the competition. AMD results is sure a reflection of the portfolio meaning only the consoles generate a profit. And that will show in the results the next year, but that needs to change fast. Its about time AMD get the best CEO. The change of CEO is sign the results is not there, but its also a sign the board is awake. AMD have practically always lost money the last 30 years, so the latter is by far the more important. They might even dare to have a difficult talk with Mubadala about the future.
 
 
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