AMD appoints new CEO as losses continue

Advanced Micro Devices has replaced Hector Ruiz with Dirk Meyer as its CEO, as the company reported its seventh consecutive quarterly net loss on Thursday.

AMD's board has elected Meyer to the CEO spot effective immediately, AMD said. He was previously president and COO and has been with AMD 12 years. Ruiz will become executive chairman and chair of AMD's board of directors.

The chip maker also announced that it has decided to divest its handheld and digital TV businesses. The company had merged the businesses into its consumer electronics group after the 2006 acquisition of ATI. Last week, AMD announced it would take a charge of US$880 million related to impaired assets of those businesses.

AMD's revenue from continuing operations for the second quarter rose 3 percent from a year earlier, to US$1.35 billion. But the company still posted a net loss of $1.19 billion, or $1.96 per share.

(More to come.)