Money, Money, Money
At a financial analyst day at AMD headquarters in Sunnyvale on Wednesday, HEXUS managed to catch up with the firm's newly appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer (CFO), Thomas Seifert, to get his insight on the firm's financial direction and his new role.
Seifert, who reports directly to AMD CEO, Dirk Meyer, was appointed a month ago after his predecessor, Robert Rivet, was promoted to the position of chief operations and administrative officer. He boasts a 20-year stint in the semiconductor industry, with his previous roles including a seat on Qimonda's management board, being that firm's COO and CFO.
Unfortunately for Qimonda, the firm has been through the financial wringer over the past couple of years, suffering delayed quarterly earnings, a state bail-out,insolvency and finally a part sale to TI. So Seifert certainly has experience when it comes to financial crisis management.
"I have a very special appreciation for cash, I can tell you!" he told HEXUS, adding that it was encouraging to now work for a company that came out with about 30-40 products every year.
Asked whether he believed AMD had financial strength in its future, Seifert admitted he was certainly "excited" about the opportunities coming up over the next couple of years, especially with AMD's Fusion just around the corner.
"I had the opportunity to look into ATI a while ago and I was always intrigued by the possibility of fusing graphics know how with CPU know how," he said, adding he was very much looking forward to see how well the two came together.