The plight of AMD and its troubles in doing battle with Intel were partially self-inflicted and part due to its non-flashy, "get your hands dirty," roll-your-sleeves-up, management style espoused by AMD's CEO, Hector Ruiz.  That is about to change as AMD's flamboyant founder, CEO, captain of industry, Hollywood dweller, wanna-be politician, mega-yacht owner, and promoter extraordinaire, W.J (Jerry) Sanders III, has been nominated by the board of directors to return to save the company with his mastery of good old fashioned marketing, flamboyant management style, visionary ad campaigns (remember the asparagus theme?), outlandish publicity stunts and flashy employee morale boosting parties.  And morale boosting is something AMD needs very badly these days with missed manufacturing schedules, the "price is not right" purchase of a graphics firm, a steep stock price slide, and, most of all, rumblings of going fab-lite. 

Jerry Sanders

Sanders's return to the AMD throne will show once again that only "real men have fabs," a point of view he promoted which came with much controversy as the fabless community was taking off in the late 1980s.  After all, if a young hippie-yuppie, like Steve Jobs, could come back to restore creativity and morale among the troops at Apple after Gil Amelio made apple sauce out of the PC company, then Sanders can once again make AMD's star shine in the super-charged "I feel the need for speed" microprocessor world.

Wall Street was taken by enormity of the rumors and AMD was halted in trading.  The 33-year run of Jerry Sanders as the top-gun at AMD is still not over.  The staff of InsideChips rushed to buy depressed AMD stock -- hovering at 15-year lows.

Now, it should be said that Sanders himself recruited Hector Ruiz to eventually take over the AMD helm ... for reasons we never understood at the time … and to this day still ponder over.  Aside from being his bipolar opposite in management style and that only one letter stood between his last name and the word "Ruin," Sanders must have consulted a Rodeo Drive palm reader to make this key decision. 

Ruiz, a former 22-year Motorolan, who InsideChips believes had a very contentious time at Motorola Semiconductor in the way he re-organized and managed the semiconductor group, was in the midst of re-inventing and downsizing the big "M" when one of the most surprising management changes of  2001 hit the trade press newswires.  Ruiz jumped ship at Motorola to join the AMD band of marketing renegades to do battle with Intel.  The man who wanted take down Intel with the PowerPC jumped the fence.   Sanders, the quintessential, fast-talking salesman, and Ruiz, the roll-up-your-sleeve, Tex-Mex, manufacturing meister, was an interesting match-up in the annals of management. At the very least, the move probably surprised some AMDers hoping for the top job.

While growing up in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Ruiz reportedly was aspiring to be a car mechanic.  As a teenager, he walked across the United States-Mexico border daily to attend a high school in nearby Eagle Pass, Texas, from which he graduated as valedictorian just three years after beginning to learn English.   Instead of becoming a grease jockey, Hector de Jesus Ruiz received a doctorate in electronics from Rice University and launched his semiconductor career at Texas Instruments.

When he took over AMD, he was still seen as "Mr. Fix-It."  This was after the tech-wreck of 2001 as chip firms were picking up the pieces and looking to stem the red ink flowing on their P&L statements.  For a while, AMD's market share increased and its fortunes looked brighter as its stock price almost regained the highs seen in 2000.  Ruiz was named CEO of the year in 2005 by Electronics Business magazine.  AMD's move to multiple core processors before Intel, its willingness to open its core to third parties, and its push for lower power operation showed a winning business strategy for a year or two. Then things began to unravel … something was amiss at AMD and Intel found its footing again as it retook lost market share.  Perhaps it was the acquisition of ATI which began the downhill spiral.  Then, the problems with bringing AMD's much-touted Barcelona quad-core processor to market brought additional pressure on management.

Rumors have been swirling in the press from unnamed sources that AMD's Ruiz is going to be exiting in the not too distant future.  His five year employment contract was up last year and he has been operating on a year-to-year contract basis since then.  According to SEC filings, the current contract expires on April 26, 2008.

As for Sanders, he was bloodied before.  Growing up on the South side of Chicago, he was once attacked and beaten by a street gang that left him so covered with blood that a priest was called in to administer the last rites …  but he recovered.  After many brutal years dueling with Intel, his bust stands in the lobby awaiting his return.  His mantra was on a poster which he kept in his former office: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil -- for I am the meanest son of a bitch in the valley."  Seventies something John McCain is running for president … seventies something Walter Jeremiah Sanders can rejuvenate AMD.

Jerry Sanders captured on video below by a EE student catering volunteer at the 50th Fairchild Semiconductor Reunion in October 2007 at the Compuer History Museum in San Jose, Calif.  Sanders made his appearance with wife Tawny Sanders, former Miss Texas.

Fairchild Reunion party photos (password=fairchild)

More Fairchild Reunion photos

Why is the saving of AMD important?  Because AMD is the last remaining microprocessor manufacturer among the 15 or so companies that Intel licensed or self-developed x86 second-sources at the beginning of the PC boom in the 1980s and the only real challenger to Intel's total domination of the MPU industry.  AMD should survive because it was the only company to mount a legitimate challenge against one of the world's best known technology brands and one of the most successful technology company's in U.S. history.   None of the others could do battle with the Intel-igentsia, including well-heeled companies like Zilog, National Semiconductor, Motorola, Transmeta, Japanese giants, and others.  In Sanders' own words AMD is "the last man standing" after a long-time legal and marketing cage fight with the 800-pound gorilla.  Intel and AMD have a storied past … let it continue.  Much of that will depend on AMD's ability to weather what it likes to call its "perfect storm," i.e., pricing pressures, delayed MPU products, and a slowdown in consumer electronics.

Legacy of Fairchild Semiconductor

DISCLAIMER and DISCLOSURE:  Today, April 1, 2008 is April Fool's day and this is InsideChips' April Fools report for 2008.  Sanders' return and halted stock trading are fictitious … at least as of the date of this report.  Some aspects and analysis in this report are InsideChips' opinion.  The statement that InsideChips staff bought AMD stock is true.