AMD's DiFranco Gets a New Job at Lenovo

AMD's ex-corporate vice-president of marketing Stephen DiFranco has just announced that he would join Lenovo to pursue other challenges in the notebook world.

DiFranco left AMD on April 23rd and according to tech website Fudzilla, the chip manufacturer will also break up with Mario Rivas himself who is currently appointed as Executive Vice President with the Computing Products Group at AMD.

Lenovo is manufacturing both desktop and notebook systems, although it was the latter that brought the company into the spotlight. It is currently unknown what the main objectives of AMD's ex-VP of sales will be in the new position at Lenovo, given the secrecy that surrounds his breakoff with the chip manufacturer.

Stephen DiFranco resigned right after his executive colleague Phil Hester called it quits over the Barcelona mess-up. It is also unknown whether DiFranco willingly resigned or his head had to roll because his failures have almost ruined the company, but it seems like Lenovo is not to worry about his poor performance during his stay at AMD.

However, the wave of departures left AMD with only a few top executives and Rivas' move, although improbable, would be a tough blow to a company that barely survives. AMD has already begun evaluating its options on the market and plans to sell its consumer division, along with at least one of its two semiconductor manufacturing facilities.

If AMD manages to sell its fabs as part of its "asset-smart" policy, the company will be left without both infrastructure and qualified executive staff to supervise the transition to the 45-nanometer manufacturing process. AMD's most valuable assets were its employees but Hector Ruiz fixed the "glitch" by handing pink slips along with the last paycheck.


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