Intel CEO Bob Swan to Step Down Effective February

[Raevenlord]

The midnight bell seems to have struck for Intel CEO Bob Swan, with Intel announcing his departure from the CEO position effective February 15th. The news comes after a two-year tenure as Intel's CEO, in addition to seven additional months in which Bob Swan served as interim Intel CEO before officially assuming the position. VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger will take over the CEO chair, and following this announcement, Intel's stock surged by more than 10%, while VMWare's stock dipped by 5% on the prospect of losing its CEO.

Patrick Gelsinger formerly served under Intel, where he climbed the ranks until reaching the coveted CTO position - and also served as Senior Vice-president and General Manager of the Digital Enterprise Group. He is also credited as being one of the driving forces behind the creation of standards such as USB and Wi-Fi, architected the 80486, and played key roles in 14 generations of Intel Core and Xeon processors. Investors expect Gelsinger's technical background to help steer Intel into less troubled waters when it comes to strategy and execution. in wake of Bob Swan's departure, Intel also announced that it expects fourth quarter 2020 revenue and earnings to exceed prior guidance, and that it will take to its January 21st earnings report to discuss the "strong progress" achieved by the company in the in-development 7 nm node.



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[KarymidoN]

when your CEO has to resign, it shows things are not going very good, and the near future might be a little bit rough...

 

[Slizzo]

Wait, Intel is FINALLY putting an engineer in the top spot?! Christ it's amazing it took them this long to figure out that maybe having someone that knows something about the product actually in charge as being a good thing.

 

[xSneak]

Why are they announcing this now and not later at the earnings report next week?

 

[phanbuey]

when your CEO has to resign, it shows things are not going very good, and the near future might be a little bit rough...

I think he was always kind of a temporary CEO since the last one departed in a scandalous hurry.

 

[LemmingOverlord]

Why are they announcing this now and not later at the earnings report next week?

Because it could potentially burst Intel's bubble and it's better to preempt these announcements than let Financial Analysts run amok during a phone conference. If this were announced during the financials, it would steal the thunder of any (meager) good news Intel may have.

Wait, Intel is FINALLY putting an engineer in the top spot?! Christ it's amazing it took them this long to figure out that maybe having someone that knows something about the product actually in charge as being a good thing.

Maybe a little too late in the game to make good management decisions. In any case, I doubt Pat Gelsinger will recognise the company he's returning to... fingers crossed he can do something about it, but I think it's an end-of-days scenario for Chipzilla.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

He wasnt the swan song that they needed. Not that they deserve.

 

[Vayra86]

Haha an Intel press release wouldn't be complete without some babble about strongly progressing nodes.

I guess they believe in the power of repetition. Keep hoping for a different outcome, guys, you can do it!

 

[mechtech]

when your CEO has to resign, it shows things are not going very good, and the near future might be a little bit rough...

Their profits say otherwise....

 

[Chrispy_]

Intel seem to be following the path and repeating the mistakes of IBM.
Anyone else getting that vibe?

 

[zlobby]

Wow! I wonder what caused this?

 

[thesmokingman]

What does it say about a company that when their head honcho super bean counter steps down and the stocks makes makes a run up, well run up for intc lol? This is a company starving for positivity.

Omfg, they paid Swann 67 million to further run the company into the ground, what not with these retarded no benchmarks crap? No wonder they are so thrilled for Pat to come back. Though judging from vmware... it could be a yawn.

 

[blobster21]

This smile though

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Wow! I wonder what caused this?

stock prices mainly, pressure from hedge funds, 10nm fiasco, the list goes on.

 

[Arc1t3ct]

Finally...

 

[Tom Sunday]

That is what the "STREET" likes to hear, given the slight recent stock jump and keeping the corner office reserved within Intel corporate. Whether or not Pat is able to turn the tide and with the new tech already underway at Intel is still an open question. There are no quick fixes. No daubt Pat's technical background and operational leanings are known, but Pat was never known by insiders to be a champ in corporate strategy. I am still reeling with my past conservative and dividend paying position in GE. A bad drill and loss. At least AMD in a rather short time made us some cash to keeping up the lifestyle. The Intel Thursday, January 28 earnings report cannot come soon enough to actually see the Intel boys dancing and now given the changing of the guards. Will there be talk about the charting of the new CEO’s course? As usual I will read the 'Seeking Alpha' transcript' several times over and between the lines to get the full drift. Unless there is so much dancing that nobody can get the drift for all the loud music. I am not holding a present position with Intel but it's always good to be listening in. I do expect however that Intel will exceed guidance.

 

[Caring1]

Their profits say otherwise....

When some of your products are stillborn, others never eventuating and security flaws abound, saturate the market to keep that money rolling in.

 

[Patr!ck]

New Intel CEO and I have something in common...

 

[Minus Infinity]

Deck chair meet the Titanic.

I have no idea if this will help Intel, certainly not in the next 1-2 years with things already locked in place. They really need to stop promotoing old boys and bring in fresh outsiders to rebuild the mindset at Intel, or nothing will improve. Look at Rocket Lake, power hungry and all they care about is few fps lead over Zen 3 in stupid games. Alder Lake may be a ray of sunshine for them but it can't come soon enough.

Anyway I'm all in on Zen for many years to come, but we need serious competition, but it may come from Apple not Intel.

 

[zlobby]

stock prices mainly, pressure from hedge funds, 10nm fiasco, the list goes on.

Yes, as usual I forgot the /s. Sorry bout that!

In all honesty, I thought it was pretty obvious. Intel are on a shitty streak for quite some time. I expected the board to take measures a long time ago.

New Intel CEO and I have something in common...

You have a million dollars severance package?

When some of your products are stillborn, others never eventuating and security flaws abound, saturate the market to keep that money rolling in.

Faux corporate image and crappy halo products can keep you afloat only for so long.

 

[crubino]

Conroe 2 the sequel =))

 

[Tom Yum]

People also seem to be forgetting Pat lead either as architect or CTO such successes as Netburst, RDRAM for P4, and Larabee, so he has a fair share of failures to his name as well that puts a cloud over his business acumen. Time will tell how he goes, but putting an engineer in charge of Intel is no sure fire way of fixing the company, Swan's predecessor, Brian Krzanichwas a 30 year engineering veteran who was in charge until 2018, during which many of Intel's current woes in manufacturing and brain drain started. He also completely missed the rise of the mobile market which in large part led to the dominance of TSMC as a foundry provider.

 

[Prima.Vera]

When your top dog for the masses has 2 Cores less than last year's one, with increased power consumption, I think not only the CEO should leave, but also all those incompetent idiots under him that decided this atrocity.

 

[thesmokingman]

When your top dog for the masses has 2 Cores less than last year's one, with increased power consumption, I think not only the CEO should leave, but also all those incompetent idiots under him that decided this atrocity.

And for the fact that these idiots let a talent like Keller leave. They couldn't get over themselves to integrate with an all-star talent like that... unbelievable.

 

[quakebox]

Does this means intel will come back or it's a false positive? "Only Time will show" stay tuned for next episode of Intel vs AMD Clash of the CPUs on Tech Powerups.