AMD's Executive Suite Starts to Look Like Swiss Cheese

Chips and cheese make a good snack, but holes in a semiconductor’s executive staff make for a bad taste in stockholder’s mouths. High level employees are departing Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), leaving vacancies in their executive offices. The company isn’t saying why, nor did they explain how the openings will be filled.
 
Last month, we saw CEO Dirk Meyer booted off the Board of Directors supposedly because he didn’t have an acceptable plan to take the company into new markets. Thomas Seifert, current CFO has been temporarily filling in.
 
Yesterday, the company admitted to losing their chief operations and administrative officer, Robert Rivet, as well as their senior vice president of corporate strategy, Marty Seyer. It was just in November, 2009 that AMD came up with their new look, of new executives, new approach, new logo. So, what’s up cooking now at the chip maker’s house? The question is: Will Seyer’s plans remain in place, or should we expect a new roadmap?
 
The standard quote regarding employee departures given by Mike Silverman, AMD spokesman was: "They’ve both been with the company quite some time and have made significant contributions over the years." So have their jobs become stale like yesterday’s cheese, are they tired of the same old grind, are they no longer making "significant contributions," or are the fleeing executives seeing some writing on the wall that others haven’t picked up on yet?
 
Their annual report cited a net income during fiscal year 2010 of $471 million with a 45 percent margin. In the report Seifert stated:"AMD enters 2011 with significant momentum, amplified by the successful launch of our first Fusion APUs. I am confident we can drive profitable growth based on the strength of new products we will bring to market.”

That growth will be necessary to absorb the costs of losing executives right and left. 2010 saw an all time record for the client microprocessor segment’s revenue, but expenses must be considered. Looking into 2011, the CFO Commentary that accompanied last year’s fourth quarter results stated: "Operating expenses are expected to be approximately $650 million due to an extra week in the quarter and contemplating a separation payment to Dirk Meyer of approximately $12 million."

The impact of Rivet’s and Seyer’s departures may also leave a hole in AMD’s budget.