Conclusions
With all the changes there have been over the past few months at AMD this has the feel of a culmination. When execs start clearing off or getting the chop for no apparent reason people assume the worst. However, if it all looks like part of a grand plan then executive upheaval can be viewed as a good thing, especially if your company hasn't made a profit for two years.
So, assuming this is the culmination of the grand plan, AMD suddenly looks in the best shape it's been since the ATI acquisition. The graphics side, both discrete and integrated, has been in rude health for months now and, with the launch of Shanghai, AMD has a great opportunity to take back some market share from Intel on the CPU side.
While we still think that Amato's shoes will be difficult ones to fill, some purge of AMD's executive ranks was almost certainly necessary. For AMD to become the lean, mean fabless machine CEO Dirk Meyer hopes it will be, it needs to ensure everyone pulls their weight.
Even Intel would probably secretly concede that the IT world - and thus the whole world - needs a healthy and innovating AMD, if only to keep Intel and NVIDIA at the top of their games. Today's AMD is stripped down and executing on its product launches. Notwithstanding the state of the global economy, we wouldn't be surprised to see some more encouraging earnings in the coming months.
