Intel INTC has been on the lookout for a new CEO following Brian Krzanich’s resignation last month over violation of the company’s anti-fraternization policy. Things took an interesting turn with Diane Bryant, an ex-Intel employee, resigning from the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Alphabet’s GOOGL Google Cloud after joining the search giant less than a year ago. Speculations are rife that Bryant is likely to return to Intel, as the permanent CEO.
Notably, former CFO, Robert Swan has been appointed as the interim CEO. The board is actively looking for a candidate to take over as permanent CEO. In fact, a top executive search firm is aiding the company in the procedure. Consequently, Bryant’s resignation from Google Cloud after such a short stint has added fuel to the fire.
A look at Intel’s history of CEOs reveals that the employees have been elevated eventually to leadership positions with the goal of maintaining continuity in company’s culture. This becomes a major driving point for analysts who believe that Intel may end the CEO search in Bryant, who has been away from the company for only a few months.
There have been no comments from Bryant or the chipmakers’ end. Meanwhile, in a statement to Business Insider, a Google spokesperson said, "We can confirm that Diane Bryant is no longer with Google. We are grateful for the contributions she made while at Google and we wish her the best in her next pursuit.”
Notably, Intel’s stock has returned 12% in the past six months, outperforming the industry’s rally of 7.1%.
Bryant Nurtured a Major Growth Segment at Intel
Bryant joined Intel in 1985 and served the company for 32 years. Bryant worked up the ranks through 2012 as the head of company’s Data Center Group (“DCG”). Bryant left the position in December 2017 to join Google Cloud as COO. After working for mere seven months at Google Cloud, this resignation news comes as a surprise.
During Bryant’s term, Intel’s "data centric" chips were leveraged by some of the big names comprising Facebook Inc FB, Microsoft MSFT and Google, among others.
DCG segment registers the highest growth amongst company’s other business lines and forms a major pie of total revenues. In the first-quarter of fiscal 2018, DCG accounted for 32.6% of total revenues. DCG revenues surged 23.7% year over year to $5.23 billion. Robust demand for high-performance products (including Xeon Scalable) which aid ASPs drove year-over-year growth.Cloud and Commercial service provider were greater than 60% of DCG's revenues.
Given the 32-year association with the company comprising five years of leading DCG, we are of the opinion that Intel might soon bring an end to the search for a new CEO with Bryant. We believe this anticipated move will augur well in the long haul.
To Conclude
In order to satiate investors and shareholders, the company is expected to end the perusal and other processes of potential CEO candidates as soon as possible. Going by the rich experience Bryant has, we believe she is a considerable name, among other probable names shortlisted here. The chipmaker also raised outlook for the soon to be reported quarter, elaborated here.
Bryant is expected to mould company’s cloud computing business and take it to new heights, among other responsibilities.
Zacks Rank
Intel carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Intel stock is witnessing northbound Zacks Consensus Estimate revisions of late. The soon to be reported second-quarter earnings have surged 15.1% upward to 99 cents and moved 4.2% north to $4.00 for fiscal 2018 over the last 30 days.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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