Intel just announced that two of its top executives are leaving the company, a surprise move that puts more control under the recently hired former Qualcomm exec, Venkata “Murthy” Renduchintala.
The two executives leaving are Kirk Skaugen, SVP of Client Computing Group, and Doug Davis, SVP of the Internet of Things Group. Skaugen and Davis each spent 24 years and 32 years at Intel, respectively. Davis will retire from Intel at the end of 2016, while Skaugen's looking for a "next career opportunity," according to the company.
Skaugen's group was in charge of Intel's PC and mobile chip businesses. Intel's PC revenue has been in decline as the general PC market is shrinking, and the company hasn't been able to build much of a presence on the mobile side.
Intel has been making a strong push towards the so-called Internet of Things market lately — everything from internet-connected home appliances to drones — but it's still a tiny part of the company's overall revenue.
The announcement was made Monday morning through a company email, co-written by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and Renduchintala, who's now the president of the Client and Internet of Things (IoT) Businesses and Systems Architecture Group.
The big management shake up comes just 4 months after Renduchintala's hiring, a move that surprised many. Renduchintala spent nearly a decade at rival chipmaker Qualcomm, leading its main chip unit, but Intel created a whole new group that put both Skaugen and Davis's groups under his control.
The announcement also comes a couple days after Bloomberg reported the departure of Aicha Evans, who was leading Intel's mobile chip business. Intel's representative wasn't immediately available for comment on the report of Evans' departure.
In any case, Monday's move reaffirms the speculation that Intel is planning to change the company's culture by giving more power to outside hires, including Renduchintala.
As Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of the Linley Group, wrote in a recent column, "Intel occasionally hired outsiders into VP positions in the past, but this broader wave of newcomers, with support directly from the top (Krzanich), is empowered to drive change throughout the organization."
