Rick Hegberg, AMD Senior VP of World Wide Sales, resigns

[BrynS]

Hexus is reporting that Rick Hegberg, AMD's Senior Vice President of World Wide Sales, has resigned.

[...]
Like Orton, Hegberg was also an ex-ATi executive and we understand that one of his key roles within AMD was as a negotiator with its (ATi inherited) Far Eastern Add-In-Board (AIB) graphics partners.

We’re wondering who has the expertise to step into the rapidly cooling shoes of Hegberg or is it AMD’s discrete GPU business that is rapidly cooling?...

Especially since our understanding is that the teams within AMD responsible for its graphic business are struggling for budget and resource to even reengage with NVIDIA on a high-end technology level.
[...]

While it would be reasonable to expect some budget rationalisation for AMD's graphics division to go along with the company-wide cost cutting and 'asset-light' approach, the last comment is quite worrying for consumers and the company, if true, i.e. competition, leveraging development costs, etc.

At this rate there will be a completely new executive team by the end of the year.

 

[SugarCoat]

cue a lot of people saying "i told you so". That merger timing is looking more and more terrible to what was once ATi.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I hope they're not betting the farm on Fusion. Fusion will be beaten to market by Nehalem+graphics (and probably Westmere, maybe even Sandy Bridge). If they're cutting back on discrete graphics R&D to fund Fusion they'd better damn well hope Fusion is on-time or early, and it better be a world-beater on all fronts or they may as well have never purchased ATI.

 

[AlexV]

I hope they're not betting the farm on Fusion. Fusion will be beaten to market by Nehalem+graphics (and probably Westmere, maybe even Sandy Bridge). If they're cutting back on discrete graphics R&D to fund Fusion they'd better damn well hope Fusion is on-time or early, and it better be a world-beater on all fronts or they may as well have never purchased ATI.

Ironically, looking back, the bolded part would've been the best thing for both companies. AMD wouldn't be struggling as badly as they are and their cash would be in a hugely better situation, whereas ATi wouldn't be tied to a drowning giant that slowly seems to be skinning it quite thoroughly.

 

[Geo]

So, in the last three months, we have:

Hegberg, Orton, Richard, and Dal Santo.

Wheeeeeeeeee. Folks, that's nearly a massacre.

 

[AlexV]

So, in the last three months, we have:

Hegberg, Orton, Richard, and Dal Santo.

Wheeeeeeeeee. Folks, that's nearly a massacre.

Was Dal Santo from the old ATi?

I was expecting a trimming of the former head-honchos from ATi-there's only so much space in a single scabard, and after all, it's AMD who's in charge. I'm not really really worried about that. The worrying aspect is the seeming lack of funding for the old ATi(as per what Hexus reported), and the R&D staff bleed which seems to be occuring over there.

 

[Geo]

Yeah, VP and General Manager of Handheld for the old ATI