Technology

Intel: Higher Guidance Trumps CEO Brian Krzanich Resignation

Jon C. Ogg

Published: June 21, 2018 10:15 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 10:04 pm

The world of technology has just seen a major change in leadership among its industry titans. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) has announced that Brian Krzanich has resigned as chief executive officers and also as a member of Intel’s board of directors.

This would not be the most welcome news, considering the reason, and readers can decide on their own about the selection of “resignation” versus “termination.” So, Intel also raised its quarterly guidance and is calling for 2018 to be another record year for the company.

Thursday’s press release said that the company was recently informed that Krzanich had a past consensual relationship with an Intel employee. The company noted:

An ongoing investigation by internal and external counsel has confirmed a violation of Intel’s non-fraternization policy, which applies to all managers. Given the expectation that all employees will respect Intel’s values and adhere to the company’s code of conduct, the Board has accepted Mr. Krzanich’s resignation.

The one positive here about guidance is that Intel expects to deliver a record second quarter and expects that 2018 as a whole also will be another record year. Intel’s second-quarter guidance was for revenues of approximately $16.9 billion and earnings of about $0.99 per share. Thomson Reuters had estimates at $0.85 per share on earnings and about $16.3 billion in revenues. The company cited accelerating data-centric revenues for the guidance, but it will provide an updated outlook for the full year on the second-quarter earnings call on July 26.

The board has named Chief Financial Officer Robert Swan as interim CEO, effective immediately. Intel board chair, Andy Bryant, said in the release:

The Board believes strongly in Intel’s strategy and we are confident in Bob Swan’s ability to lead the company as we conduct a robust search for our next CEO. Bob has been instrumental to the development and execution of Intel’s strategy, and we know the company will continue to smoothly execute. We appreciate Brian’s many contributions to Intel.

The company already has begun a search for a permanent CEO, including both internal and external candidates, and Intel will retain a leading executive search firm to assist in the process.

As far as Swan’s background, he has been Intel’s CFO since October 2016 and leads the global finance, IT and corporate strategy organizations. He previously spent nine years as CFO of eBay. Earlier, he was CFO of Electronic Data Systems and TRW. He has also served as CEO of Webvan Group.

Intel shares closed up 1% at $53.46 on Wednesday and rose to $54.53 just after Thursday’s opening bell. The 52-week trading range is $33.23 to $57.60.