Recent staff changes at the company have helped fuel the rumors. Notably, sales chief Henri Richard departed the company in September and investor relations director Mike Hasse also left. AMD president and COO Dirk Meyer, who is widely considered to be the top candidate to succeed Ruiz at some future point, was last week appointed to company’s board of directors.

There is also the issue of AMD’s tanking share price, which has been bouncing at or near its 52-week low. Financial analyst Cody Acree, with the brokerage house Stifel Nicolaus, said it was not uncommon for significantly low stock prices to lead to questions of top management change.

But at the same time, while I think it’s obvious that there have been errors in AMD there have also been huge successes, Acree said. AMD is in a much, much stronger position than they have been than at many times in their history.

After all, it was only a few quarters ago that AMD was outdistancing Intel in most metrics and setting the tone in the market, he said. The difference now is Intel has woken up and become very aggressive, Acree said.

AMD was previously releasing stronger products than Intel, one after the after, and that is no longer the case. But we’re not seeing anything to push a chief out, he said.

Acree is not the only trader to have heard the rumors. But he reckons the media is fuelling the rumor-mill rather than there being any actual insider knowledge among traders.

Of course, shareholders ultimately get to decide, or at least get to put pressure on the board, about whether Ruiz stays or goes so anything could happen, Acree said. However, he said he has not heard from or about any disgruntled investors who are calling for leadership change at AMD.

I’ve heard more about this from reporters than I’ve heard from clients, he said. It may be more media talk than it is anything actual.

AMD stock closed at $12.28 on the Nasdaq yesterday, slightly above its 52-week low price of $11.27 and far from its 52-week high of $23.

Our View

Talk that Meyer is the front runner to replace Ruiz seems to ring true, based on his recent appointment to the board being described by AMD as part of its long-term succession plan. But a long-term succession plan does not a dramatic management change make. Such plans are commonplace and there are no indications that AMD is readying to change its chief in the immediate future.

AMD’s stock is depressed because of a confluence of reasons, including product delays, particularly with its quad-core Barcelona microprocessor, and products coming out that have been below expectation. There are also questions about AMD’s $5.4bn purchase of ATI Technologies in 2006: Was this the right acquisition for the company and was the price tag too high?

At the same time, Intel aggressively focused by shedding non-core business units and overhauling its strategy and staff. It has begun executing with a wave of new products and a shift to its smaller 45-nanometer manufacturing node.

In other words, Intel relative success may be more of the reason why AMD’s stock low rather than any major misstep by Ruiz.