RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Lisa Su, chief executive officer at chip producer AMD, took to Twitter early Tuesday to deny a report she might join IBM as its No. 2 executive and possibly replace current Big Blue chair/CEO Ginni Rometty.
Lisa Su from her Twitter account.
“Just for the record, zero truth to this rumor. I love @amd and the best is yet to come!” Su tweeted.
The tweet came after Wccftech.com reported about a possible move.
“According to my sources, Lisa Su is eyeing the #2 position at IBM with the eventual goal to end up as CEO and President of IBM, replacing Ginni Rometty,” wrote Usman Pirzada.
“The advanced groundwork for this transition has apparently already been laid down as you will read further in this article. While I do not know the exact reasons for why Lisa would choose IBM of all companies to move to, I am told that this is something that she has wanted for a very long time.”
After Su’s tweet, Pirzada noted: “Lisa Su has denied this story. The article will remain live for those that want to read it and since I stand by my reporting.”
Has Red Hat’s Jim Whitehurst set himself up to succeed CEO Rometty at IBM?
Speculation about another possible successor to Rometty also has mentioned Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat which was acquired by IBM for $34 billion. Whitehurst reports directly to Rometty.
Rometty, 61, has already moved beyond the age of 60 at which other top IBM execs have stepped down.
Whitehurst is 52. Su is 49.
Su has quite a record at AMD.
“Since taking over as CEO of AMD in October 2014, AMD’s stock has skyrocketed 757%,” notes tech news site Benzinga.
“Su has been credited with leading a comeback in AMD’s CPU business, and AMD has even become a threat to Intel Corporation INTC 0.66% in the server processor market.”
IBM operates one of its largest campuses in RTP and Red Hat remains based in Raleigh as a separate entity within Big Blue.
