Intel Corp’s new chief executive, Brian Krzanich, has launched a sweeping company reorganization and created a unit aimed at growing its market share in mobile technology.
The shakeup, announced internally just days after the 30-year veteran took the helm, places most of the main product groups of the world’s top chipmaker directly under the chief executive officer’s supervision and hands its sprawling global manufacturing operation to new president Renee James, said a source close to the company, who declined to be identified.
Details of the reorganization were outlined in an internal memo sent to employees on Monday. It was described to Reuters by a company source and details of the reorganization, which is effective immediately, were confirmed by company spokesman Chuck Mulloy on Tuesday.
“As your CEO I am committed to making quick, informed decisions. I am committed to being bolder, moving faster and accepting that this means changes will be made knowing that we will listen, learn and then make adjustments in order to keep pace with a rapidly changing industry,” Krzanich said in the e-mail, according to the source.
“Our business faces significant challenges and we simply must continue to execute while finalizing our future strategy,” Krzanich reportedly wrote in the e-mail.
Krzanich officially took over as chief executive officer last week and said that under his leadership, the top chipmaker will be more responsive to customers in an intensified focus on the fast-growing smartphone and tablet market where it lags rivals.
The chipmaker’s main product groups — including the PC client group, mobile communications and data center unit that previously reported to Intel Architecture group chief Dadi Perlmutter — now report directly to Krzanich.
After Perlmutter transfers his business groups, he and Krzanich will “define his next significant contribution at Intel,” according to the e-mail described by the source.
Intel has called the shots in the PC industry for decades but it was slow to react to the explosion of smartphones and tablets. The latter two markets are now dominated by competitors like Qualcomm Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, which design their chips using architecture licensed from ARM Holdings PLC.
This week’s reorganization is Krzanich’s first step in a process aimed at making Intel more focused and more agile, Mulloy said.
Mike Bell will head up Intel’s newly formed “new devices” group,” which Mulloy said will focus on emerging product trends.
“The new devices organization is responsible for rapidly turning brilliant technical and business model innovations into products that shape and lead markets,” Krzanich said in the e-mail, according to the source.
Shares of Intel were up 0.2 percent at US$24.13 on Tuesday afternoon on the NASDAQ.
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