AMD's chief operating officer Lisa Su
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has combined product groups and promoted two executives for the next phase of its planned multiple-year strategy to maintain profitability.
The company is combining products into two groups as a way to improve operational efficiency. The company has struggled financially in recent years, with a loss in the most recent quarter after two consecutive quarters of modest profits.
As part of that restructuring, Lisa Su is being promoted to chief operating officer, solidifying her role as second-in-command to CEO Rory Read. She will head up the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business Group. Su is currently senior vice president and general manager of global business units and will take on her new role July 1.
John Byrne was named senior vice president and general manager of the new Computing and Graphics Business Group, which includes PC and tablet chips and graphics products. Currently AMD's chief sales officer, Byrne will also begin his new job July 1.
The restructuring effectively reduces focus on AMD's foundry operations, which became important following chip delays and manufacturing issues in 2010 and 2011. After selling its foundry operations to GlobalFoundries in 2009, AMD hired a team to fix the manufacturing issues. AMD has claimed its manufacturing issued are in the past and in April signed a new wafer-supply agreement with GlobalFoundries.
AMD has diversified chip operations in recent years as it looks to move beyond PCs into adjacent markets such as game consoles, embedded chips and dense servers.
Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com
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