AMD COO Bob Rivet and Marty Seyer, senior VP of corporate strategy step down

Bob Rivet, chief operating officer for AMD is leaving the company, roughly a month after KitGuru broke the news worldwide that Dirk Meyer was stepping down as CEO.

AMD said on Wednesday that Rivet who had joined the company in 2000 as CFO was no longer COO but has agreed to stay with the company through a short ‘transition period'. There have been no details given for the departure but they have said that Rivet has decided to ‘pursue new opportunities', whatever that means.

Additionally we have heard that Marty Seyer, senior VP of corporate strategy was leaving, and AMD have yet again declined to give any reason.

Clearly some reshuffling in the chain of command is going on behind closed doors. John Docherty, head of manufacturing operations is going to report directly to interim chief executive Thomas Seifet and the companies corporate strategy team will now report to Harry Wolin, general counsel and secretary.

This has all started with the departure of Dirk Meyer last month over an apparent disagreement with AMD's board over the direction of the company, particularly the strategy for entering emerging markets outside the PC environment – such as tablets and smartphones.

Meyer was responsible for a major restructuring of AMD which included a spin off company called Globalfoundries which has strengthened manufacturing operations.

“The restructuring actions, like spinning out GlobalFoundries, reorganizing operations, and shedding the mobile phone media co-processor and DTV SoC businesses that enabled AMD's focus on PC products today, leaves the company without an answer for emerging opportunities for [AMD's] x86 [processors], such as media tablets and smartphones, which are the fastest growing segments driving the semiconductor market,” Shane Rau, an IDC analyst, told InformationWeek.

Seifert, AMD's CFO is acting CEO until the board come to a conclusion about a permanent replacement for Meyer, who was the COO of AMD when he replaced Hector Ruiz in 2008 as CEO.

AMD have yet to confirm anything regarding this hunt for a new CEO, so we have no idea when an official announcement will take place.

KitGuru says: Time for new blood? The board seem to think so.

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