14 DAY TRIAL // The population of Earth may have been taken by surprise by how AMD's CEO suddenly resigned, and it seems that, according to reports, Dirk Meyer was actually pushed out by the board of directors.
“Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives including the launch of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the successful settlement of our litigation with Intel and delivering Fusion APUs to the market,” is what Bruce Claflin, hairman of AMD’s Board of Directors, said.
”However, the Board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time. This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns.
The Wall Street Journal claims to have come upon some information on the actual factors, or factor, behind this sudden decision.
At the annual strategy session, Meyer presented his plans, as was his due, which included, of course, the tablet and server sides of their business.
According to the report, the board reached the conclusion that, as far as these two segments are concerned, the company would not change as fast and favorably as they hoped.
Thus, they decided to change the CEO for one 'with different skills' and, thus, hopefully attain a more successful and effective rate of growth.
With analysts feeling that AMD's launch of the Fusion architecture during CES 2011 was a fairly worthy showing, Meyer's departure came like quite a surprise.
At least he will get severance benefits, seeing as how this was “a termination of employment without cause.”
Of course, there are those who were not against expressing their misgivings with this entire development.
“They just don’t understand the business,” said AMD Co-Founder Jerry Sanders. “They are looking for some magic bullet to find a market where they don’t compete with Intel.”