Bertrand Cambou, who has been CEO of NOR flash memory maker Spansion ever since it was spun off from AMD and Fujitsu as a separate company, has resigned.
A couple of weeks ago, Spansion put itself up for sale or merger after its share price fell to around 7 cents.
Today it has appointed John Kispert, formerly President, COO and CFO of instruments company KLA-Tencor, as CEO of Spansion.
Dr Boaz Eitan, founder and CEO of Israeli flash IP house Saifun, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Spansion, becomes President of Spansion.
"As the new CEO, in addition to the strategic and restructuring initiatives, I plan to create a winning strategy for the company that leverages Spansion's market leadership, rich intellectual property portfolio, and strong customer relationships," said Kispert, "my first priority is to ensure that Spansion capitalizes on the company's tremendous strengths to bring value to our stakeholders."
The NOR flash business has been congenitally unprofitable. Intel and STMicroelectronics spun off their loss-making NOR flash businesses into the joint venture Numonyx.
Spansion has brought up a 300mm fab to make NOR flash at Aizu in Japan and, last year, bought Saifun. The transactions put a strain on the company's finances.
By contrast, Numonyx decided it could not find it cost-effective to invest in a 300mm fab for NOR production, and it makes its chips on eight inch lines.
Cambou is a distinguished scientist who has worked in flash memory for decades, doing much of the fundamental work in its development, and leading the commercialisation of the MNOS-based technology, which Spansion calls NROM, which is used in Spansion's Mirrobit technology. He remains a consultant to Spansion.
Kispert, who is 45, has been at KLA-Tencor for 14 years.