Oh
one of the big stock stories of the day
Advanced Micro Devices forcing out its
CEO dirk mayer after just two and a half
years on the job and just a week before
AMD reports earnings it was a very
sudden move and as a result the shares
of the world's number two maker of
microprocessors falling since that
announcement late yesterday afternoon
down more than eight percent right now
joining us to discuss what is turning
out to be a c-suite mystery is Cody a
Korea director of research with Williams
Financial Group and Noah Kravitz's
editor-at-large for TechnoBuffalo calm
this is a leading national blog on
technology and consumer gadgets Noah
what are you hearing you have your ear
to the ground out there why did this guy
get fired or resigned or whatever yeah
well I was just out in in Vegas last
week at CES and it was really like a
coming-out party for Nvidia their new
Tegra 2 chips are everywhere phones
tablets cars you know you name it and
and I think that was really the the well
Nvidia is got I mean the the new
flagship products from you know Motorola
on Verizon on AT&T the new Google tablet
the first you know ever real Google
tablet all have the Nvidia chips in them
they've been building these chips
specifically for mobile applications and
AMD just has been trailing in that space
let alone the problems they've been
having competing with Intel's Atom chips
which have been in netbooks everywhere
and they're just they haven't been
keeping up Cody what do you make of this
move in the stock I would think analysts
and investors would I don't use frighten
but you wake up and the guy has just
been pushed out resigning effective
immediately without a whole lot of
explanation it usually means that
there's something coming there's another
shoe to drop how worried are you about
it well it's very worrying and the the
the problem now is that AMD has no one
to provide that inspiration and and I
think it goes back several months to a
time when when dirt made a presentation
has strategic presentation of the board
and it just lacked any real vision into
the tablet market anyway to take back
market share against Intel and he has
done a good job at getting some products
out but they've been late
they are executing well but it's going
to take more than just late and a small
product line to be done so so Cody what
do you want the board to do what would
instill confidence in you once again to
either go out and buy the stock
recommend the stock change the rating on
the stock what what do you want to see
now from the company you have to
engender confidence and that's the
problem is without some kind of
charismatic leader that can really
define a strategy that makes sense and
not just we're gonna roll out new
products at a timely manner and try to
beat the guys out there that they're
doing well you've got to give them
something different and that's going to
be an awfully large large nut to crack
noha of TechnoBuffalo calm would this
potentially put AMD in play would what
put them in play you're pointing to it
to us we're looking at a stock that's
down nearly 9% today it says that $8 a
share
you've just fired your CEO you say they
are they're losing in key market places
right now this feels like they've always
been a second fiddle to Intel
so does a taiwan company or a korean
company coming in by you know i'm not
the stock I am the gadget guy but it
makes perfect sense to me I mean as you
said you know the the key places mobile
is hot tablets you know that whole thing
is that was all the news coming out of
this year and and yeah it would make
sense from my standpoint for them to be
absorbed from the financial standpoint
you know that's not my area but
certainly in what's hot right now
absolutely let's turn that to Kody you
know there are a lot of companies out
there especially in the tech space Cody
that are sitting on it doodles of fools
of cash would a my water would AMD bring
to the table that would make it an
interesting acquisition target or have
they missed the boat so much that they
would not be eligible to be acquired by
a company well they do bring a few
things but I think the problems outweigh
the opportunities there really are very
few companies out there that would have
the size them cash the wherewithal to
even stomach thinking about going
long-term against Intel if you could
come out at this
pick up some some some IP that might get
you just in to participate in a new
mobile or tablet market but if you're
gonna buy all of AMD then you have to be
a competitor against Intel long term
against in-video long term and they're
just I don't see anybody obvious that
would want to take that kind of risk
you guys hear any names about a possible
replacement either one you know
no confidence oh do you know thank you
so much thank you thank you guys
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