Lisa Su’s first week as the chief executive of AMD (NYSE: AMD) was not an easy one as the company faced “challenging market conditions” and a 2% year-over-year decrease in revenue.

The chipmaker posted third quarter revenue of $1.43 billion, an operating income of $63 million and net income of $17 million. Breaking down the earnings of AMD’s individual units, things get ugly quick. The company’s Computer and Graphics division — seen traditionally as the ‘bread and butter’ of the company — posted revenues of $781m, a 16 per cent year-on-year decline. The division posted an operating loss of $17 million which is more than the $6 million loss it posted in the previous quarter.

The Enterprise, Embedded, and Semi-Custom division, which AMD is putting faith in as the company’s new money maker, posted revenues of $648 million — up 21% from a year ago. The division posted earnings of $108 million, compared to last year’s earnings of $92 million.

But AMD also says the worst is yet to come. The company disclosed that it expects revenues to slide another 10 to 16 per cent in the next quarter, sequentially.

As such, the newly minted CEO Su ordered the company to engage in a restructuring plan (Bright Side of News* reported on this earlier in October) that will see global workforce reductions of 710 employees — or 7% of the company.

“While decisions that impact the size of our global team are never entered into lightly, this is the right step to ensure we prioritize our resources and engineering investments in our highest-priority opportunities that can drive improved profitability and long-term growth,” Su said in a statement regarding the layoffs.

AMD’s stock ended the Thursday trading day at $2.64. Friday’s trading day will likely when traders assess their confidence in Su’s plan to restructure the company.

The post AMD Plans Layoffs, Restructuring After Rough Quarter appeared first on VR World.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) shook up its executive team last week, appointing former senior vice president and company manager Lisa Su to the position of CEO while discharging Rory Read.

In documents filed with the Securities and Exchange commission late Tuesday, AMD has now disclosed the total cost of Read’s severance package as well as the starting compensation package for Su.

Read will be receiving a lump sum cash payment of $5 million, and will still be eligible for this year’s cash bonus. He isn’t leaving the company immediately, as he will stay onboard as a non-executive advisor until the end of the calendar year.

Su will begin her tenure as CEO with a salary of $850,000 with options for a bonus of up to 150% based on certain (undisclosed) incentives criteria. She will also receive $5 million in stock, divided between restricted share units and time-based stock options. This amount will be paid in two installments in 2015 and 2016. The company will grant a bonus of $2 million in stock should certain performance metrics be satisfied.

Su’s starting salary is less than her predecessor’s, who began with a salary of $1 million. However when Read began he was a new employee with AMD while Su is not.

To date it’s unclear why Read was shown the door. Under his leadership the company has largely stabilized its finances from the chaos of years before, and pushed hard into non-traditional markets where it has had some success. However, Read was rarely seen in public as Su was the face of AMD at major events such as Computex and CES. Many who watch the company closely believe that Read was only intended to be a temporary CEO until another was found, or once was groomed from the company’s existing ranks.

The shuffling of AMD’s executive deck is remarkable as the company is set to declare earnings on October 16.

The post AMD Discloses Rory Read’s Golden Parachute, Lisa Su’s Starting Salary appeared first on VR World.

AMD投資人關係的聲明指出Read會在過渡時期擔任顧問，繼續為AMD(那斯達克交易代號：AMD)效力，並且會一直留任至2014年底。我們曾在報導中提到Su先前負責管理公司的嵌入式與專業產品，但她在就職極短時間之後，就接任首席執行長了。事實上，Su在接掌全球事業群之前，便擔任這個單位的總經理，從這點就能看出她有望角逐首席執行長一職。

這是AMD持續進行結構調整的過程，也是本月執行大規模重整的第一步，我們在上週就指出這點。AMD即將進行許多改變，且公司董事會撤換Read絕對是明智之舉，因為事實擺在眼前 – Su的確精通公司的產品和市場。Read的工作是讓公司繼續營運，且在必要時疏通關係，瞭解他在公司職責的人一定都能看透這點。等到像是Su這樣的人才獲得適當的職位培訓，了解該如何就此經營業務之後，他在位的日子也就不長了。事實上，Su先前在AMD的多數工作幾乎可說是迷你首席執行長的職責，這或許能解釋她擔任首席執行長的消息，為何沒讓多少人感到訝異。

Su同時也是AMD的第一位女性首席執行長，這再度顯示了資訊科技業的進展，像是Oracle、IBM、HP和許多全球最大型的企業現在都由女性領導。雖說Su身為女性無論如何不該影響公司或她的表現，但這對整體科技業的女性來說還是一件好事，因為這樣就不會引發女性在業界只能勝任哪些工作的錯誤觀念了。

請觀賞以下影片，了解Su對就任新職以及公司走向的看法。

The post AMD任命LISA SU博士取代RORY READ擔任首席執行長 appeared first on VR World.

As we had reported earlier, the race to replace Rory Read as CEO between John Byrne and Lisa Su had been heating up for quite some time and now that race is over with today’s announcement. In today’s announcement, Dr. Lisa Su replaces the current CEO Rory Read who was more of a caretaker CEO for the company as they came out from the verge of collapse under the rule of Thomas Seifert.

According to a statement from AMD’s investor relations, Read will continue to be with AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) in order to support the transition in an advisory role, remaining with the company through the end of 2014.  Su as we had previously indicated, was responsible for the company’s embedded and professional products but only held the role for a very short period of time until she became CEO. In fact, Su was the GM of Global Business units before she became in charge of that business group, which had already telegraphed that she might be in the running for CEO.

This is a continuation of the company’s restructuring as well as the first step in major restructuring this month that we had indicated late last week. Many changes are coming to AMD, and replacing Read is definitely a smart move by AMD’s board because the reality is that Su really gets the company’s products and markets. Read’s job was to keep the company moving forward and to grease the wheels as necessary and anyone that saw his role within the company could see that clearly. His days were numbered until someone like Su had been properly groomed for the position and understood how the business needs to be run from that position. In fact, much of what  Su had done before inside AMD almost seemed like a mini-CEO position which may explain why her becoming CEO is not much of a shock to anyone.

Su is also AMD’s first female CEO and once again indicates the progress within the IT industry with some of the biggest companies like Oracle, IBM, HP and many more all being led by women. While the fact that Su is a woman should not affect the company or her performance whatsoever, it is a good thing for women as a whole in the tech industry so that there are no misconceptions about what a woman is capable of in tech.

Watch below as Su talks about her new position and the direction of the company.

The post AMD Appoints Dr Lisa Su as CEO, Replaces Rory Read appeared first on VR World.

Our sources are confirming to us that AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) will undergo another major restructuring of the company. This restructuring follows the recent reorganization of the company’s overall organization headed by Dr. Lisa Su and John Byrne. The latest restructuring was announced around the time of Computex and based upon a split of the company into two separate divisions. This restructuring seemed like one merely on paper, shifting over some responsibilities from one person to the other but keeping all divisions and staff intact.

Those two divisions are the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business Group and Computing and Graphics Business Group. As stated before, John Byrne will be responsible for the Computing and Graphics Business Group while Lisa Su will head up the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business Group. Now, the restructuring that is being discussed now (and supposedly already being set in motion) is supposed to be an extension of June’s reorganization/restructuring. This will very likely result in some people changing their roles within the company as well as some people being laid off, as generally seem to happen with major reorganizations. While there are no definite figures of how many people will be let go, it did not sound like those numbers were massive like the culling of 2009 through 2012.

Unfortunately, there aren’t that many details about exactly how many people could be laid off, but this sounds like a long term plan execution rather than a reactionary cut due to poor earnings. However, there were some indications that this next restructuring would very likely come after AMD’s 3Q 2014 earnings which is on the 16th. It remains to be seen how investors will react to this news, but if AMD has poor earnings for 3Q 2014, it may be seen as a reactionary restructuring rather than a planned one which is how it was interpreted by our sources. We are labeling this as a rumor because it isn’t an official announcement, however this is essentially already a done deal.

The post AMD to Enter Another Round of Restructuring This Month appeared first on VR World.

So, AMD announced that they would be reshuffling the company’s corporate structure which includes some business unite consolidation and executive shuffling. First and foremost, they would be appointing Dr. Lisa Su as the COO from her current position as Senior Vice President and GM of Global Business Units. Anyone that knows how AMD works and what Dr. Lisa Su has been doing already knows that she’s effectively been the COO for quite some time and that the company had actually vacated that position a long time ago. Keep in mind that AMD’s current CEO, Rory Read, was once COO of Lenovo before he came from IBM (which is where Lisa Su spent most of her career before she worked at Freescale).

So, that point is merely nothing more than a technicality. Now, there have been a few organizational adjustments made within the company as they’ve consolidated the entire company into two divisions.

AMD will have a Computing and Graphics Business Group as well as an Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business Group. This effectively separates the professional and consumer graphics divisions as well as the consumer processors from the server processors. AMD’s current CSO, John Byrne, will be made the Senior Vice President and GM responsible for leading the entire division and will report directly to Dr. Lisa Su.

Now, for the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business Group, the company will have Dr. Lisa Su herself as the acting lead of the division. This includes AMD’s server, embedded, dense server and semi-custom businesses (consoles), it also includes the related product engineering and sales functions necessary for these various businesses.

There have been rumors within AMD that the company would be grooming a new CEO to replace Rory Read, their caretaker CEO. Rory Read has done exactly what he was brought on to do, keep the company stable, and more importantly, alive. We’ve been hearing rumors that John Byrne may be one of the front runners for the CEO position, which makes sense with today’s announcement even though he was already CSO. And Lisa Su’s role within the company already groomed her for the position and her involvement in the company’s public events further makes this seem plausible.

Dr. Lisa Su (center) pictured along with John Byrne (left of her) and Colette LaForce (to her right) at last week’s Computex 2014

However, there is no denying that the constant presence of both John Byrne and Lisa Su at company announcements and launches is without a clear sign that the job for CEO is effectively between the two of them. This is why I believe AMD has decided to split the company up in two and has essentially given each of them a chance to show who of them is more capable of making AMD a successful company.

One weird thing that AMD did was mention the ages of everyone involved including Rory Read (52), Lisa Su (44) and John Byrne (43), which even further clarifies that this is more of a CEO race than anything. However, some investors and members of the board may be concerned that Lisa Su and John Byrne may be ‘too young’ to run the company even though they are clearly the two most qualified people to do so. It just adds another drop into the CEO race bucket.

I honestly didn’t see it coming down to this, as normally the CEO position is mostly politically battled from within the halls of the companies in question. If this is indeed the board of AMD’s way of giving each of them a chance to show their stuff, they may have just telegraphed it to the entire world and we will probably be able to pick the next CEO of AMD purely based upon the performance of these two divisions of AMD over the next year or two. Until then, we’ll just have to keep watching. These changes will be reflected starting July 1st.

The post AMD's Latest Restructuring: Let the Race for CEO Begin? appeared first on VR World.

AMD has long been pressured by many of their investors, industry analysts, and various press to show some more core innovation. Well, today, AMD announced their core innovation update in San Francisco and streamed it online as well. The company came out with all their major executives, including current CEO Rory Read as MC, to talk about their new ambidextrous approach, combining their expertise with x86 with their new found interest in ARM, especially in embedded and servers. The update itself focused around the official announcement that AMD will be licensing ARM’s v8 architecture for their own ARM CPU cores, which comes as little surprise to those following AMD and ARM. It also focused on the fact that AMD will be offering a new platform called SkyBridge, which will be a pin-compatible platform that allows x86-based 20nm Puma+ CPUs to be interchangeable with AMD’s Seattle-based ARM CPUs. This AMDextrous approach appears to be AMD’s new way of differentiating themselves from the competition which are traditionally single architecture.

AMD’s ARM + 86 expected TAM

Based on AMD’s belief that ARM will continue to grow, they believe that they will be able to capture the largest portion of the TAM in x86 and ARM with an ambidextrous approach. They want to make it clear to everyone that AMD is not abandoning x86 and that they are continuing to push x86 alongside ARM, even if the focus appears to be on ARM right now. They plan to execute on this ARM and x86 strategy through the aforementioned ARM architecture licensing with their custom ARM 64-bit processors and the SkyBridge platform in 2015 that will enable pin compatible x86 and ARM chips to fit into the same platform. Keeping in mind that SkyBridge is coming in 2015 and will not be initially targeted towards servers but rather embedded, semi-custom and possibly client. But AMD really put quite a big focus on ARM CPUs as they even brought ARM’s CEO, Simon Segars, on stage to talk about the importance of AMD’s move towards ARM and ARM architecture and the impressive things they’ve managed to do. This really helped AMD cement the focus of the entire conference on ARM, even though much of what AMD has talked about has been disclosed or leaked well ahead of today’s announcement.

AMD’s ARM + x86 Ambidextrous approach

AMD further extended their CPU roadmap today by showing us that their plans for their custom 64-bit ARM processors are expected in 2016, which is about 2 years out. AMD also explained, with the help of their Chief CPU Architect, Jim Keller, that they would be building this ARM CPU from the ground up and that this design process is already in-progress. Not just that, but AMD is also working on a new x86 architecture from the ground up, also with the leadership from Jim Keller, which is also quite an undertaking and may be AMD’s attempt to resolve their problems in the high-end performance segment. And with the announcement of their custom ARM v8 64-bit architecture CPU, AMD announced the AMD K12 ARM Core, which is designed to be the follow up to AMD’s Seattle ARM A57 CPU and its lower power brother due in 2015. They are very heavily focused on ARM and wanting to make it clear to everyone how important the ARM architecture is to their AMDextrous approach.

Mark Papermaster talks with Jim Keller about AMD’s new K12 and x86 64-bit CPU development

In addition to showing off their new ARM CPU Roadmap, AMD also talked about how their new 64-bit ARM cores would work in conjunction with their new 64-bit x86 cores in order to deliver the most powerful ambidextrous solution in the world. Not to mention, currently the only one, as most vendors are either ARM or x86 and don’t necessarily switch between or support the two. Even though, Intel is technically both x86 and ARM since they are an ARM licensee.

AMD then brought everyone on stage, including Rory Read, Mark Papermaster, Lisa Su, Simon Segars and Jim Keller on stage to answer questions, of which there were many. Some of the questions were about the SkyBridge platform, while others, like our very own Gil Russell, asked about AMD’s planned presence in China with these new products as well as how this announcement would affect SeaMicro, which for the most part remained very much in the back burner of today’s announcement.

In terms of the questions, we learned quite a bit about AMD’s plans for these new products as well as answers to our questions about today’s announcement. SkyBridge, AMD’s ARM + x86 ambidextrous approach will be coming in 2015 as stated in the slides above, however will not come to servers likely until 2016 or later. They are working on the ARM K12 custom ARM SoC based on ARM v8 and that the entire thing is based on a ‘blank sheet of paper’ a term used repeatedly by Jim Keller. Also as stated earlier, they are working on a new x86 64-bit CPU core architecture, however there is no specific name or explanation about it other than we can likely expect it in 2016 alongside the custom ARM architecture. And there was an interesting little note from Mark Papermaster that said that he was surprised that Jim hadn’t asked for more budget from him during the press conference as he and Jim are constantly talking and discussing, this may be a sign that perhaps Jim Keller isn’t getting all the resources he may need to deliver what he wants on time.

AMD also addressed the question about their presence in China by saying that they already have 1,000+ engineers in China and the necessary field applications people in order to make proper use of their presence there. They also said that SeaMicro will have Seattle cores in their servers and that they will be one of the proofs of concept for AMD’s new ARM strategy and which could possibly mean even their new ambidextrous strategy in the future. Finally, AMD confirmed that HSA will be in their 20nm parts next year and that ARM parts next year will be HSA compatible, which was one of the many reasons why AMD had been pushing the new archiectures and new platforms for their ambidextrous approach. One interesting thing was when Lisa Su answered a question about the placement of AMD’s ARM SoCs, she was very clear to say that they do not expect to be in low-cost smartphones, but didn’t really rule anything else out, which means that AMD’s low-power consumer strategy going forward is likely going to be ARM-focused, not x86.

Overall, we learned some very interesting things about AMD today, including some really valuable developments in the new CPU IP area of things. While I still doubt the relevance of their ambidextrous strategy when their x86 share is so low, it may prove invaluable in the future with their newer architectures that are hopefully going to be more competitive with Intel and other ARM vendors.

The post AMD's New AMDextrous Strategy, Skybridge and Custom 64-bit ARM Cores appeared first on VR World.