Intel Corp. (INTC), the world's biggest chipmaker, said Friday that Chairman Craig Barrett plans to retire in May after a 35-year career at the company.
The Santa Clara, California-based company also said Jane Shaw, a board member since 1993, will replace Barrett, 69, as Non-Executive Chairman. Ms. Shaw is also the former chairman and chief executive of specialty pharmaceutical company Aerogen Inc.
"Intel became the world's largest and most successful semiconductor company in 1992 and has maintained that position ever since," Barrett said in a statement. "I'm extremely proud to have helped achieve that accomplishment."
Barrett joined Intel in 1974 as a technology development manager. He was promoted to vice president of the copany in 1984, to senior vice president in 1987 and executive vice president in 1990. Barrett was elected to Intel's board of directors in 1992 and was named the company's Chief Operating Officer in 1993. He became Intel's fourth President in May 1997, and Chief Executive Officer in 1998. He became Chairman of the Board in May 2005, when he was succeeded as a CEO by the current incumbent Paul Otellini.
The announcement of Barrett's planned retirement comes days after Intel said it will halt production at five older plants by the end of this year as part of its plans to restructure some of its manufacturing operations and align its manufacturing capacity to current market conditions.
The actions, which will take place between now and the end of 2009, are expected affect 5,000 to 6,000 employees, though not all of them would leave the company as some of them would be offered positions at other facilities.
The job cut announcement came as a surprise to many, as the chipmaker had said earlier this month that the 20,000 job cuts made since 2006 should help it tide over the economic slowdown.
However, a 90% drop in fourth quarter profit, falling demand for PC chips has forced Intel to cut costs further and align its manufacturing capacity.
Intel is the world's largest supplier of microprocessors, the brains of personal computers, with roughly 80% of the global market share. However, the entire industry is facing a grim situation in the midst of the economic crisis. A freeze in information technology spending and a shift toward low-margin processors have caused havoc on chipmakers.
While reporting its financial results for the fourth quarter last week, Intel said it was not providing a revenue outlook for the first quarter, but for internal purposes, it is currently planning for revenue in the vicinity of $7 billion. That would be about 15% lower than revenues in the preceding fourth quarter and about 28% lower than revenues of $9.67 billion reported in the same period last year.
The world's biggest chipmaker has also raised the possibility of reporting a loss for the first quarter, a media report said Tuesday, citing an internal memo of the company. Intel has not reported a net loss since 1986.
Intel shares are currently trading at $13.36, up 54 cents or 4.21%. The shares are trading in a 52-week rnage of $12.06 to $25.29.
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