AMD shakes up company along client and server lines

Major realignment will see the chip firm consolidate units into two business groups

Chipmaker AMD has announced a major reorganisation of its corporate structure that will see it consolidate all of its business units into just two groups as it continues with its efforts to transform the company.

The firm, which largely competes against chip giant Intel in the x86 processor market, said that as part of the realignment, it will consolidate its business units into the Computing and Graphics Business Group and the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business Group.

This new structure will be implemented on 1 July and will be led by a new chief operating officer, Dr Lisa Su, who will report to AMD chief executive Rory Read.

Of the two business groups, the Computing and Graphics group will combine AMD's client, consumer graphics and professional graphics businesses, as well as related product engineering and sales functions.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom group will combine AMD's server, embedded, and semi-custom businesses, as well as their related product engineering and sales functions.

The reorganisation will thus see the firm largely split along client and server lines, with one group focused on the successful Opteron server chips, with the other looking after AMD's chips for consumer PCs, laptops and graphics.

AMD said that the move is intended to strengthen the firm's position in the traditional PC market and drive growth in adjacent markets such as servers and embedded systems.

The firm has been hit by difficulties over the past few years because of declining PC sales, partly due to competition from new devices such as tablets. However, it is looking to expand into new territory with the development of ARM-based server chips, which target a growing niche for dense, energy-efficient servers.

"During the past two years, we have been successfully executing our three-step strategy to reset, accelerate and ultimately transform AMD. Today's announcement represents the next step in our long-term strategic plan to help ensure AMD's operating structure and culture are better aligned to drive consistent growth and profitability by leveraging our leadership IP to create differentiated products that help our customers win across a diversified set of high-growth markets," said Read.