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Ruiz Once A Hero Out At Amd

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by Kevin Maney
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Jul 18 2008 12:00am EDT

Ruiz, Once a Hero, Out at AMD

Kevin Maney sighs: It's amazing how quicky fortunes can reverse. Just a few years ago, Hector Ruiz was a tech industry hero. As CEO of AMD, he led the chipmaker through a time when it actually gave Intel fits and had some of its best financial results ever. Born in Mexico, Ruiz gets credit for the first sparks of the movement to make low-cost computers for developing nations -- with AMD's 50x15 program, so named because it intended to get 50% of the world's population on the Internet by 2015.

But in the past couple of years, that turned sour. Intel came charging back and AMD couldn't get hot new chips out the door. Earnings kept slipping until, finally, the numbers led to Ruiz's ouster today. Dirk Meyer, who was Ruiz's number two guy, will take over. Ruiz stays as chairman.

 

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