AMD Found a CEO! Now What?

Apple is not the only company with big CEO news today.

As Cupertino loses an immortal leader, Advanced Micro Devices (NYS: AMD) hopes to have found a new one. After ousting Dirk Meyer from the CEO office and embarking on a seven-month search for a new CEO, AMD has come back with a new leader.

As an aside, I finally sold my AMD shares earlier this week. With or without a winner at the helm, the stock no longer looks like a terrific investment at this point -- and I needed the cash to get into some new stocks while they're stunningly affordable. I just wish I would have sold earlier to preserve my capital better.

So the new guy tasked with wrestling multiple bears comes with an appropriate pedigree: Rory Read comes from leading PC manufacturer Lenovo, where he served as chief operating officer since 2009. You may recognize Lenovo as the Chinese company that took over the old IBM (NYS: IBM) PC division when Big Blue wanted to get out of the consumer game. In fact, Read was a part of that IBM deal, having spent 23 years working for the Armonk, N.Y., giant.

That's a good start, but nothing to get excited about. AMD's search committee had gone looking for fresh blood in the upper echelons of Oracle (NAS: ORCL) , EMC, and Apple, including new Cupertino leader Tim Cook. Of course, they all said no.

It's one thing to lead a refreshed up-and-comer against chip giant Intel (NAS: INTC) in the main processor market, against the ARM Holdings (NAS: ARMH) army in mobile computing, and against bitter rival NVIDIA (NAS: NVDA) in graphics. That would qualify as an inspiring challenge to many a big-name leader. If you can make it here, you'll make it anywhere. That's how you climb the career ladder in a big way.

But that inspiration disappears when you look at what happened to the last guy. Meyer only turned AMD back from the brink of bankruptcy to reshape a badly damaged balance sheet and make the company profitable again after a multiyear dry spell. The Fusion strategy was just starting to bear fruit when the ouster came. If that's how AMD treats a proven success, then how mind-blowingly great do you have to be in order to enjoy any job security?

Will AMD challenge its many enemies under Rory Read's leadership? Add AMD to your Foolish watchlist if you want to know for sure.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributorAnders Bylundhas written puts on Intel but holdsno other position in any of the companies discussed here. The Motley Fool owns shares of EMC, Apple, IBM, and Oracle. The Fool owns shares of and has bought calls on Intel.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of Intel, Apple, and NVIDIA.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended creating a diagonal call position in Intel and a bull call spread position in Apple.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended writing puts in NVIDIA. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. You can check outAnders' holdings and a concise bio, follow him onTwitterorGoogle+, or peruseour Foolish disclosure policy.

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