Intel Working With ‘Sense of Urgency’ to Find Krzanich’s CEO Successor, Says CFO

That Intel celebrated its 50th birthday July 18 is “a big deal in an industry that never stops evolving,” said Robert Swan, chief financial officer and interim CEO, on a Thursday earnings call, the first since Brian Krzanich resigned as CEO last month for violating a “non-fraternization” policy (see 1806210008). Under Krzanich’s watch, Intel “set a course five years ago to transform the company” from a PC-centric microprocessor supplier to a data-centric industry leader, said Swan. “We made investments to enhance and extend our core microprocessor business along with a series of bold bets to compete and win in new markets. Our thesis was that Intel is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the world's insatiable need to process, store and move data.” The results have been a “dramatic” success, said Swan, who publicly thanked Krzanich, because “the investments he made set us on a course for transformation.” Intel's board is “making good progress” in finding Krzanich’s successor, said Swan. “While there is no timetable, the board is working with a sense of urgency, and the identification of candidates, both internal and external, is well underway.” Shares closed 8.6 percent lower Friday at $47.68on investors' fears that Advanced Micro Devices was eating into Intel's leadership share in the lucrative data-center business, despite generally positive Q2 results in that sector for Intel. Revenue in Intel's cloud business, its largest data center segment, grew 41 percent year over year in Q2, as "hyperscale" capital expenditures expanded "to handle the explosive need to transmit, store and analyze data," said Swan on the call.