Advanced Micro CEO Is Said To Be Grooming New Chief

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April 06, 1998 (1:52 PM EDT)

Advanced Micro CEO Is Said To Be Grooming New Chief

Jerry Sanders is grooming Atiq Raza, chief technical officer, to replace him within the next 12 months as president and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), according to an analyst's report.

"Unlike Jerry's brash personality, Atiq's soft demeanor should bode well for the company," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, in Minneapolis.

Raza was president and CEO of Nexgen, the microprocessor maker AMD acquired in October 1995.

According to an AMD spokesman, Sanders, 61, is working under a five-year contract, which stipulates that Sanders must give up the title of CEO in 2002 and chairman in 2003. Santa Clara, Calif.-based AMD, which will release quarterly results Tuesday, might also provide an update about possible management changes as well as details on production yields of its K6 microprocessor, the spokesman said.

Last week, the company said test yields of its 0.25-micron K6 have risen from 20 percent late last year to nearly 70 percent.

AMD, which signed a two-year foundry agreement with IBM to build its K6 microprocessor in March, is receiving much needed cash from IBM, according to the report.

"We have been able to confirm that IBM is indeed injecting capital into the company and plans to use AMD as an instrument in its last stand against Intel," Kumar said.

Two weeks ago, Intel announced that Craig R. Barrett will replace Grove as CEO in May. Barrett, 58, is president and chief operating officer of Intel. Grove, 61, will continue to serve as chairman.