By
Damon Poeter
28 June 2008 11:21AM
Tags:
amd | loses | another | top | executive
Top channel exec Stephen DiFranco bids adieu to struggling chip maker AMD, sets up shop as consumer channel sales boss at Lenovo.
Advanced Micro Devices has had it rough for more than a year now and top executives have been fleeing for the exits even as Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD promises to further trim its headcount by 10 percent by the end of the third quarter.
The latest to part ways with AMD is Stephen DiFranco, former VP of worldwide consumer channel sales, who has left to take a similar position with computer maker Lenovo, ChannelWeb has learned.
"We appreciate Stephen's contributions during his tenure at AMD and wish him success in his future endeavors," an AMD spokesperson said Wednesday.
DiFranco joins Mario Rivas, former head of AMD's Computing Solutions Group; Michel Cadieux, ex-head of human resources; and former CTO Phil Hester as top executives who have parted ways with the chip maker in recent months. Two more big names at AMD, ex-sales chief Henri Richard and former Visual Media Business boss Dave Orton left the company last summer.
AMD has suffered losses in six straight quarters and in April announced layoffs of about 1,600 workers from 16,800 worldwide, to be completed by the end of the third quarter of this year. The chip maker has also announced several reorganizational moves in recent weeks, including the promotion of Randy Allen to Rivas' old job and the creation of a new Central Engineering organization inside the company.
DiFranco, however, may be leaping out of the frying pan and into the fire at Morrisville, N.C.-based Lenovo, at least where the computer maker's channel is concerned. Lenovo sits in the top spot for channel market share in notebook sales and is No. 2 behind Hewlett-Packard in desktop sales share, according to NDP Group/Distributor Track numbers for the second half of 2007.
But those numbers also show a downward trend in channel market share for Lenovo, which maintains the lead in channel notebook sales with 25.7 percent of market, but is down nearly 8 points from the 33.6 percent share it enjoyed over the second half of 2006. On the desktop side, the fourth-largest PC maker in the world continues to outpace No. 2 Dell and No. 3 Acer, at least in terms of channel sales share. But Lenovo seems to be moving in the direction of those historically channel-unfriendly companies, having ceded 8.0 percent channel share year-on-year over the second half of 2007, following a similar 8.7 percent drop off in the first half.
DiFranco may have got out of AMD at a tough time for the chip maker, but he'll certainly have his work cut out for him in shoring up Lenovo's channel position.
Lenovo confirmed the hiring of DiFranco but declined to comment further.
See original article on CRN.com