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| Meyer: Resigned so that the company can try to grow more quickly. - AP |
Thomas Seifert, 47, the company's senior vice-president and chief financial officer, will succeed him on an interim basis while the company conducts a search for a permanent replacement.
In a statement, the Sunnyvale, California, company praised Meyer for leading the company through an ongoing legal battle with rival Intel Corp.
But AMD said the board believes it has an opportunity to create increased shareholder value. The company said it will need significant growth and a change in leadership to accomplish that.
AMD makes microprocessors, the "brains" of computers, and graphics processors. For the third quarter, its revenue rose 16% to US$1.61bil (RM5.2bil), slightly beating Wall Street expectations. Still, the company posted a loss thanks to its remaining stake in factories it spun off last year.
In 2006, the company purchased ATI Technologies, a US$5.6bil (RM17.9bil at today's exchange rate) purchase that nearly brought AMD to collapse. Five years later, though, ATI's graphics cards are helping the company compete with Intel and nVidia Corp, each of whose graphics cards have enjoyed strong market share.
This year, ATI overtook nVidia in market share for discrete graphics cards - that is, graphics cards designed for high-end gaming machines and computers that photographers and other artistic professionals use for visually intensive tasks on laptop and desktop computers.
When it comes to laptops, in particular, AMD's processors have been criticised for having relatively short battery life. Over the past year, however, the company has made some technical improvements that have led to its processors being built into a wider variety of laptops.
In a separate announcement, AMD said that its fourth quarter revenue edged up 2% over the previous quarter to US$1.65bil (RM5.3bil). It will report full fourth-quarter results on Jan 20. - AP
