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AMD shuffles executives, business units in major overhaul

AMD announced the appointment of a new chief operating officer and the consolidation of business units into two main segments.
Written by Natalie Gagliordi, Contributor

In what appears to be a significant corporate overhaul, AMD announced the appointment of a new chief operating officer and the consolidation of business units.

su
Lisa Su

Dr. Lisa Su will take over as COO on July 1, reporting to CEO Rory Read. As for the structural realignment, AMD said it will consolidate its business units into two expanded business groups.

The Computing and Graphics Business Group will combine AMD's client, consumer graphics and professional graphics businesses, as well as their related product engineering and sales functions. 

The Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business Group will combine AMD's server, embedded, dense server and semi-custom businesses, as well as their related product engineering and sales functions.

Sales chief John Byrne will take on the role of senior vice president and general manager of the Computing and Graphics Business Group, reporting to Su. There is speculation among analysts that the graphics area could be major growth area for the company.

Read said in prepared remarks:

During the past two years, we have been successfully executing our three-step strategy to reset, accelerate and ultimately transform AMD. Today's announcement represents the next step in our long-term strategic plan to help ensure AMD's operating structure and culture are better aligned to drive consistent growth and profitability by leveraging our leadership IP to create differentiated products that help our customers win across a diversified set of high-growth markets.

AMD has been battling Intel for years in the server and PC market and gained some share only to later give it up. Earlier this month AMD announced the mobile version of its Kaveri mainstream processor, which combines a CPU and GPU, saying it was ready to go toe-to-toe with Intel's Core i5 and i7 processors.

While the jury is still out on how Kaveri will pan out for AMD's bottom line, perhaps the structural change is the company's play to make headway in its strongest areas. What's unclear is whether AMD can deliver ARM chips and break ground in new markets, even with the overhaul.

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