AMD Appoints Dr. Lisa Su as President and Chief Executive Officer

[Cristian_25H]

AMD today announced that its board of directors has appointed Dr. Lisa Su as president and chief executive officer and member of the board of directors, effective immediately. Dr. Su, 44, succeeds Rory Read, 52, who has stepped down as president and chief executive officer, and member of the board of directors, as part of a transition plan. Read will support the transition in an advisory role, remaining with the company through the end of 2014.

"Leadership succession planning has been a joint effort between Rory and the board and we felt that Lisa's expertise and proven leadership in the global semiconductor industry make this an ideal time for her to lead the company," said Bruce Claflin, chairman of AMD's board of directors. "The board looks forward to continuing to work with Lisa and the rest of the senior management team to build on the company's momentum. I would also like to thank Rory for his many accomplishments and contributions positioning AMD for long-term success by helping to create a strong foundation and clear path to re-establish the company's growth and profitability."





Commenting on her appointment, Dr. Su said, "I am deeply honored to have this opportunity to lead AMD during this important time of transformation. Our world-class technology assets combined with the incredible talent and passion of the AMD team provide us with a unique opportunity to shape the future of computing. I look forward to expanding on the strong foundation we have built under Rory's leadership as we develop industry-leading technologies and products for a diverse set of markets to drive sustainable and profitable growth."

During the last three years, AMD has made significant progress in financial and operational performance. The company returned to non-GAAP profitability and materially diversified its business. Since 2012, AMD has reduced operating expenditures by approximately 30 percent and maintained cash at near an optimal level of $1 billion. AMD also improved its balance sheet by re-profiling its debt with no significant debt coming due until 2019.

Read stated, "I am grateful to have had the opportunity to lead such a talented team and proud of what we have accomplished during such an important chapter in the company's history. Together, we have established the right strategy to enable AMD to continue to grow and transform. I am confident that Lisa is the right leader to drive AMD forward."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[the54thvoid]

The company returned to non-GAAP profitability and materially diversified its business. Since 2012, AMD has reduced operating expenditures by approximately 30 percent and maintained cash at near an optimal level of $1 billion. AMD also improved its balance sheet by re-profiling its debt with no significant debt coming due until 2019.

What does that even mean?

It sounds awfully like shareholder speech for "we've still got terrible problems but for now we've fiddled the assets around enough to make it look okay".

Gotta love business talk. So full of shit. Next they'll copy Apple and move their tax HQ to Ireland.

EDIT: feel free to quote Nvidia's last business talk, it'll be just as bad.

 

[Fluffmeister]

nV don't need to use non-GAAP so show probability though.

Good luck Lisa.

 

[suraswami]

Rory quit? Why? Got tired?

 

[Fluffmeister]

Rory quit? Why? Got tired?

In short..... fuck that I'm outta here!

 

[suraswami]

In short..... fuck that I'm outta here!

So next is Lisa?

Why do they keep appointing money sucking people? I thought talent acquisition should be in R&D and product development? Oh wait they are driven by these top suckers!!

 

[64K]

What does that even mean?

It sounds awfully like shareholder speech for "we've still got terrible problems but for now we've fiddled the assets around enough to make it look okay".

Gotta love business talk. So full of shit. Next they'll copy Apple and move their tax HQ to Ireland.

EDIT: feel free to quote Nvidia's last business talk, it'll be just as bad.

Basically, reducing operating expenses by 30% means AMD layed off employees, shut down facilities and cut back on R&D.
Re-profiling debt usually means asking creditors for more time to pay. Until 2019 in this case.

 

[HumanSmoke]

Hector Ruiz - Scapegoat for debt burden/ ATI acquisition overvaluation
Dirk Meyer - Scapegoat for Bulldozer and lack of mobile segment market development
Rory Read - What's your crime?

 

[GhostRyder]

So lets see where this takes things, she definitely has some very appealing credentials with some high and mighty companies.

 

[fullinfusion]

So lets see where this takes things, she definitely has some very appealing credentials with some high and mighty companies.

Time will tell and I wish her the best of luck with AMD.

 

[cadaveca]

OK guys. It's time.


Vote for me as next AMD president, and I'll take AMD back to profitability, and offer top performance with reasonable pricing. I can't do it alone, but with your help, I'm sure we can succeed.


I'll need some assassins to take out the guys @ Glo-Fo, and to improve yields to levels never seen before on the planet. Also, need to license some tech from Intel, and maybe some fab time.


OK?

 

[Scrizz]

OK guys. It's time.


Vote for me as next AMD president, and I'll take AMD back to profitability, and offer top performance with reasonable pricing. I can't do it alone, but with your help, I'm sure we can succeed.


I'll need some assassins to take out the guys @ Glo-Fo, and to improve yields to levels never seen before on the planet. Also, need to license some tech from Intel, and maybe some fab time.


OK?

you know where to reach me.
just wire the funds to my offshore account.

 

[HumanSmoke]

OK guys. It's time.
Vote for me as next AMD president, and I'll take AMD back to profitability, and offer top performance with reasonable pricing. I can't do it alone, but with your help, I'm sure we can succeed.
I'll need some assassins to take out the guys @ Glo-Fo, and to improve yields to levels never seen before on the planet. Also, need to license some tech from Intel, and maybe some fab time.
OK?

Nice try, but I think you'll need more than that. Try this...
1. Obtain Christopher Lloyd's DeLorean
2. Travel back to 1999 and smack Jerry Sanders around until be agrees to use the 20% outsourcing allowance of x86 production allowed for under the Intel/AMD cross-license. Kick Jerry in the nuts every time he says "real men have fabs" and dismisses K6-III and Athlon shortages as a better alternative to having Chartered Semi or UMC make them.
3. Travel forward to 2006 and smack Hector Ruiz until he agrees to have ATI's books opened and audited before handing over the cash and shares for it.
4. Travel back to the present.....a competitive present.

/Don't forget the 1.21 gigawatts

 

[ensabrenoir]

.......ok did not see this coming. Though Double R was in in for the long haul and was making some progress......or was it all smoke, mirrors, head chopping and a massive refinance of old debt? Best of luck to you Ma'am.

 

[remixedcat]

For soem reason she looks like one of those couponers yah see at the grocery store... this can't be good.

 

[cadaveca]

Nice try, but I think you'll need more than that. Try this...
3. Travel forward to 2006 and smack Hector Ruiz until he agrees to have ATI's books opened and audited before handing over the cash and shares for it.

I think buying ATI was a sound decision. What wasn't sound was keeping all that executive staff redundancies for so long. So many people were saying "No, AMD won't buy ATI" back then, but I knew it was going to happen, and without it, we'd not have APUs.

/Don't forget the 1.21 gigawatts

I'll ask one of the power mech guys at school to solve that one, no problem.

 

[HumanSmoke]

I think buying ATI was a sound decision.

No question. What wasn't sound was paying twice what ATI was worth - especially since no one else was seriously in the market to buy the company. The $880 million write down of set-top business is a (at least) part of doing business when you don't need the whole company you just bought, but the $1.68 billion write down that came before would have been avoided with more scrutiny rather than an impulse buyers mentality. $1.68bn that pretty much covers the $2 billion AMD borrowed to complete the ATI purchase - the same $2 billion that is the core of the debt the company still carries and a prime reason that interest payments largely negate any revenue the company generates.

What wasn't sound was keeping all that executive staff redundancies for so long. So many people were saying "No, AMD won't buy ATI" back then, but I knew it was going to happen, and without it, we'd not have APUs.

Another unsound decision was to decide against integrating ATI's management into AMD's existing structure. Having ATI continue to operate as (for all intents and purposes) a more-or-less independent division obviously led to a lack of corporate cohesion. A horizontal management structure works for some companies- AMD wasn't one of them.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I think buying ATI was a sound decision. What wasn't sound was keeping all that executive staff redundancies for so long. So many people were saying "No, AMD won't buy ATI" back then, but I knew it was going to happen, and without it, we'd not have APUs.

I would still argue not. AMD announced the acquisition of ATI not long after Intel pushed out Core 2 and...slaughtered...AMD. AMD should have backed out of the ATI purchase, put its head down, and focused on answering to Intel's new architectures and promises for more. AMD should have changed from talks of buyout to partnership with ATI allowing them to integrate ATI technology in to AMD dies. AMD maybe, just maybe, would have had the resources and foresight to compete with Intel if they did this instead of getting thoroughly trounced and beaten.

The purchase of ATI basically meant the core of AMD (its foundries) had to be sold because they had no money. Instead of squandering money, AMD should have seized the opportunity to fab other people's chips not unlike TMSC. They could have fought to produce ATI's chips even.

AMD has been a train wreck since the day Core 2 debuted.

 

[v12dock]

Brb let me get a business degree real quick and I will become the next CEO

 

[Steevo]

I would still argue not. AMD announced the acquisition of ATI not long after Intel pushed out Core 2 and...slaughtered...AMD. AMD should have backed out of the ATI purchase, put its head down, and focused on answering to Intel's new architectures and promises for more. AMD should have changed from talks of buyout to partnership with ATI allowing them to integrate ATI technology in to AMD dies. AMD maybe, just maybe, would have had the resources and foresight to compete with Intel if they did this instead of getting thoroughly trounced and beaten.

The purchase of ATI basically meant the core of AMD (its foundries) had to be sold because they had no money. Instead of squandering money, AMD should have seized the opportunity to fab other people's chips not unlike TMSC. They could have fought to produce ATI's chips even.

AMD has been a train wreck since the day Core 2 debuted.

Most of that is true, except AMD has had numerous opportunities to make some bank with GPU's from the acquisition, and ATI would have survived just fine on their own, AMD was a overburdened ship with idiots at the helm when they needed strong leadership to arse F Intel, and they didn't. The have had winners and let them slip away to marketing. They have great APU's, and do nothing to promote low power performance, no attempts at reaching for ultrabooks or macbooks, no real push for laptops, no outsourcing of IP to make them cash for selling last gen tech to anyone who wants it, no wolf like attitude towards competition.


AMD suffers from too much HR and not enough balls and follow through.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

They have great APU's, and do nothing to promote low power performance, no attempts at reaching for ultrabooks or macbooks, no real push for laptops, no outsourcing of IP to make them cash for selling last gen tech to anyone who wants it, no wolf like attitude towards competition.

Uh..."low power" stems from smaller processes. AMD failed as a corporation when they fell behind, and then entirely sold out of, the fab business. AMD's APUs may be okay for desktops but they can't compete with the substantially smaller Intel process that do about as well or much better with substantially less power. AMD getting a deal with Apple? Don't make me laugh.


Enough about the past. The only future I see for AMD now is crawling to Intel and begging to use their fabs. There is no future for AMD in CPUs unless they do. If they can't/won't, AMD may as well become a GPU-exclusive company. AMD cannot compete with Intel and the growing demand for ARM. It's getting to a point where AMD is running out of options. This is what happens when a company makes bad decision after bad decision for 8 consecutive years. It is shocking they managed to stay aloft this long.

 

[RCoon]

Enough about the past. The only future I see for AMD now is crawling to Intel and begging to use their fabs. There is no future for AMD in CPUs unless they do. If they can't/won't, AMD may as well become a GPU-exclusive company. AMD cannot compete with Intel and the growing demand for ARM. It's getting to a point where AMD is running out of options. This is what happens when a company makes bad decision after bad decision for 8 consecutive years. It is shocking they managed to stay aloft this long.

This is relatively true, AMD's performance CPU is held back by the fact they continue to beat on their god awful architecture for their upcoming APUs, and the fact that their fab partner is incapable of providing what they need. Obviously you can't just rush out a performance CPU that doesn't use some obnoxious module architecture, but they should probably stop using it for the APUs, because I really don't have any justification to recommend an APU to anyone anymore. That, and no matter what they bring out, they'll always be behind because of their node size being behind to everyone else.

Even if their GPU division is a complete success, it still obviously isn't successful enough to turn a profit. Either they spend money they don't have in RnD, or they're getting so beat upon in the GPU market that their profits margins are not what they need to be.

I also don't feel this new CEO will bring them profitability. Rory was a business guy, he was there to fudge the figures, and get them the hell out of debt no matter what it took. He obliterated half the company, sold every asset that wasn't nailed down, and still, AMD saw only 1 profitable quarter? I don't think Rory was the issue, I think the state of the company is and will be. And having a new CEO who's primary knowledge is in mobile is not a good step. AMDs mobile sector is non existant, they aren't successful in that area, and it's a bad place to start trying to be.

Nice try, but I think you'll need more than that. Try this...
1. Obtain Christopher Lloyd's DeLorean
2. Travel back to 1999 and smack Jerry Sanders around until be agrees to use the 20% outsourcing allowance of x86 production allowed for under the Intel/AMD cross-license. Kick Jerry in the nuts every time he says "real men have fabs" and dismisses K6-III and Athlon shortages as a better alternative to having Chartered Semi or UMC make them.
3. Travel forward to 2006 and smack Hector Ruiz until he agrees to have ATI's books opened and audited before handing over the cash and shares for it.
4. Travel back to the present.....a competitive present.

/Don't forget the 1.21 gigawatts

Golden post right there.

What does that even mean?

We're so boned we have no idea what to say, so here's a new CEO so you can stop blaming the old one and have some misplaced faith in this one.

For soem reason she looks like one of those couponers yah see at the grocery store... this can't be good.

She also looks like a man, or was that just me and my eyes? At the bottom of her picture in fineprint it read "human generated with AMDs world fastest graphics processor, the W8100"

 

[FordGT90Concept]

This is relatively true, AMD's performance CPU is held back by the fact they continue to beat on their god awful architecture for their upcoming APUs, and the fact that their fab partner is incapable of providing what they need. Obviously you can't just rush out a performance CPU that doesn't use some obnoxious module architecture, but they should probably stop using it for the APUs, because I really don't have any justification to recommend an APU to anyone anymore. That, and no matter what they bring out, they'll always be behind because of their node size being behind to everyone else.

Even if their GPU division is a complete success, it still obviously isn't successful enough to turn a profit. Either they spend money they don't have in RnD, or they're getting so beat upon in the GPU market that their profits margins are not what they need to be.

I also don't feel this new CEO will bring them profitability. Rory was a business guy, he was there to fudge the figures, and get them the hell out of debt no matter what it took. He obliterated half the company, sold every asset that wasn't nailed down, and still, AMD saw only 1 profitable quarter? I don't think Rory was the issue, I think the state of the company is and will be. And having a new CEO who's primary knowledge is in mobile is not a good step. AMDs mobile sector is non existant, they aren't successful in that area, and it's a bad place to start trying to be.

Agree on all points but to clarify on my "AMD may as well become a GPU-exclusive company" statement: I meant turn AMD into what was formerly ATI; stop x86 entirely. The reason why AMD can compete in GPUs is because their main competitor (NVIDIA) also uses TMSC. NVIDIA does not have a process advantage over AMD like Intel does.

 

[HumanSmoke]

She also looks like a man, or was that just me and my eyes? At the bottom of her picture in fineprint it read "human generated with AMDs world fastest graphics processor, the W8100"

Given AMD's preoccupation with Star Trek holodecks, maybe it's a case of "Steady as she goes Mr. Su(lu), give me warp factor whatever-you-can manage-on-your-reduced-budget"

 

[de.das.dude]

lot of shuffling in AMD these days.