Purge
There's something quite masochistic about AMD - whenever things look like getting a bit easier, it finds some way to throw a spanner in the works.
Back when it was last beating Intel on many CPU benchmarks it decided to celebrate by saddling itself with crippling debt in acquiring ATI. Then, when AMD finally looked set to deliver some ROI on that deal at the start of this year, it turfed-out the CEO that had got it to that point - Dirk Meyer.
Well it looks like the AMD board isn't through with self-flagellation just yet. In an SEC filing it announced Bob Rivet - EVP and COO - and Marty Seyer - SVP of corporate strategy - were leaving ‘to pursue new opportunities'. They're hanging around for a bit to ‘ensure seamless transitions', but that that hasn't stopped AMD from getting their profiles off the website sharpish.
John Docherty - SVP of manufacturing operations - looks like he's adopting much of Rivet's former responsibilities, while the corporate strategy team will report into SVP and general counsel Harry Wolin.
Now AMD had supposedly done all its ‘streamlining' over the past couple of years, so we have to assume Rivet and Seyer hadn't suddenly been considered superfluous. What seems more likely is that they were quite close to Meyer, and have been spending the intervening month negotiating how much AMD would pay them to clear off quietly.
In retrospect the writing was on the wall for Rivet after Thomas Seifert was appointed interim CEO. When Seifert was first appointed, Rivet supposedly moved upwards to the COO position, meaning he was senior to Seifert. As for Meyer, we're not sure what the SVP of corporate strategy actually does, but it was supposedly a disagreement over strategy that cost Meyer his job.
So this looks like a clearing of the decks in anticipation of the new guy. The last thing AMD needs is the old guard putting obstacles in the path of whatever direction AMD decides to go in under its new CEO. It seems the board would rather keep that privilege for itself.
