Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Dave Orton steps down (sacked?) as the big cheese at ATI

  1. #1
    Team HEXUS.net
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    1,396
    Thanks
    75
    Thanked
    411 times in 217 posts

    Dave Orton steps down (sacked?) as the big cheese at ATI

    Dave Orton resigns as the pressure builds up at ATI. Uncle Hector indulging in some belated spring cleaning?

    Discover more in this HEXUS.headline.

  2. #2
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    Posts
    171
    Thanks
    1
    Thanked
    1 time in 1 post
    • DeSean's system
      • Motherboard:
      • ASUS P5K Premium Wifi/AP
      • CPU:
      • Intel Q6600 B3 @ 2400Mhz
      • Memory:
      • Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 2x2048MB
      • Storage:
      • Raptor 36GB, MaXLine III 2x250GB, HD501J 2x500GB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • BFG 8800GTS OC 320MB
      • PSU:
      • Silverstone Zeus ST75ZF
      • Case:
      • Silverstone TJ-09
      • Operating System:
      • Vista Ultimate x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • Samsung 225MW
      • Internet:
      • Virgin 10Mb
    maybe good news in the long run, but bad news in that it is kind of the icing on the cake for Intel and Nvidia in particular. It basically demonstates that despite the brave face, ATi has been very, very bad recently.

    The ATi chipsets are average (or at least the boards using them have been), the recent graphics releases by the company have been underwhelming at best. How many people will buy one or even two HD2900s when they use that much power and are often outclassed by the competition?

    It makes me sad and a bit annoyed, because we desperately need AMD/ATi in order to keep prices low and innovation high. I for one will be taking advantage of this when Intel slashes its quad core prices at the end of this month! By the looks of it, AMD's Phenom will also underperform... leaving Intel to clobber them on Price/Performance.

  3. #3
    Registered+
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Richmond, London
    Posts
    75
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts
    It's remarkable how quickly things can change. Last time I built a PC from scratch for myself (about 18 months ago) ATI and AMD ruled both the graphics and CPU high end, and Intel looked a dead duck CPU-wise (Nvidia not quite so bad). Now the roles are totally reversed and we've got a one-horse race again. Very disappointing, because competition is what pushes this industry forwards (you all remember Nvidia's complacency around 2003?).

  4. #4
    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    14,283
    Thanks
    293
    Thanked
    841 times in 476 posts
    It's interesting to now watch his interview with HEXUS.tv, from back when the merger was fresh news!
    PHP Code:
    $s = new signature();
    $s->sarcasm()->intellect()->font('Courier New')->display(); 

  5. #5
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Fort Worth, TX
    Posts
    3
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    1 time in 1 post

    Not surprising

    I am a recent business school grad and just studied the effects of acquisitions and mergers, especially related to top management. Often times the management from the acquired company is placed in executive positions to placate investors and customers, but the grand plan is ultiamtely to replace them. The fact that this anouncement comes almost exactly 6 months after the actual acquisition lends credence to this theory.

    Most often it is difficult to resolve differences in company cultures and policies, from management execs down to the most basic front-line positions. It is not uncommon to see many of the acquired company's employees leave, generally on amicable terms with nice severance packages. The CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and COOs get the most attention, but the VPs and middle management can often feel the squeeze as well. I would guess that this is more preplanned than anything else. The ATI managment was left in place to complete their current projects, but with those projects out the door (and most especially with their rather dismal failure) it is time for AMD's managment team to step up and take the new AMD/ATI on the course to reach their strategic vision. I would be more surprised to see the ATI engineers and CSs leave, since AMD needs their experience and intellectual capital to realize the most value out of this merger.

    I wish Orton the best and I'm sure he will do well wherever he ends up. I am more excited to see what AMD can accomplish with their integration strategies outlined in their roadmap now that their management team is hopefully unified and all on the same page. (link to AMD roadmap missing due to my limited post count).
    Last edited by timlm; 12-07-2007 at 03:22 PM.

  6. #6
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    I'm a Jessie
    Posts
    35,176
    Thanks
    3,121
    Thanked
    3,173 times in 1,922 posts
    • Zak33's system
      • Storage:
      • Kingston HyperX SSD, Hitachi 1Tb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Nvidia 1050
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 800w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Fortress FT01
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Internet:
      • Zen FTC uber speedy
    nicely worded timlm...and welcome

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  7. #7
    Lovely chap dangel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Cambridge, UK
    Posts
    8,398
    Thanks
    412
    Thanked
    459 times in 334 posts
    • dangel's system
      • Motherboard:
      • See My Sig
      • CPU:
      • See My Sig
      • Memory:
      • See My Sig
      • Storage:
      • See My Sig
      • Graphics card(s):
      • See My Sig
      • PSU:
      • See My Sig
      • Case:
      • See My Sig
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10
      • Monitor(s):
      • See My Sig
      • Internet:
      • 60mbit Sky LLU
    Quote Originally Posted by kapowaz View Post
    Now the roles are totally reversed and we've got a one-horse race again. Very disappointing, because competition is what pushes this industry forwards (you all remember Nvidia's complacency around 2003?).
    ...and there's the truth. I wonder if nVidia's drivers would suddenly improve if ATI had a flagship card to compete with the GTX? We can only hope that ATI's next card brings them back into the game - otherwise we'll see ever higher prices and less innovation.

    And timlm - good points and probably very true. Welcome!
    Crosshair VIII Hero (WIFI), 3900x, 32GB DDR4, Many SSDs, EVGA FTW3 3090, Ethoo 719


  8. #8
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    82
    Thanks
    2
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts
    agree with timlm - i work in finance and although i am not a mna type - i do have exposure and seen the effects of it in the past. the stats for mergers make some scary reading when you look into it. a good % of mna deals fail and a fair number occur because the acquiring companies management don't have the imagination to work out how to grow their company organically and look for alternatives to keep the US shareholders quarterly demands for EPS (earnings per share) growth satisified. one of the biggest features of any merger is that employees on both sides are distracted by concerns about their job security/new role in the combined entity (esp true in areas that are duplicated). in a traditional industry, this may not be such a huge problem, but 6-12 months of distraction in firms like AMD/ATI can result in a complete turnaround in technology lead as we have seen here...

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Interview with ATI/AMD's Dave Orton
    By Steve in forum HEXUS News
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 07-12-2006, 12:56 AM
  2. Interview with ATI/AMD's Dave Orton
    By Steve in forum HEXUS News
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 04-12-2006, 09:41 AM
  3. Sonera Plaza Interview ATI's Dave Orton
    By Steve in forum HEXUS News
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 30-08-2005, 03:04 PM
  4. HEXUS.winners - win4FREE a PowerColor X800GT!
    By DR in forum HEXUS Competitions
    Replies: 189
    Last Post: 29-08-2005, 09:01 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •