The German press is awash with rumours that Infineon's CEO Wolfgang Ziebart, will resign at the end of the month. Infineon and Ziebart are saying nothing.

The rumours of an early departure for Ziebart, his contract runs until September 2009, have been rife for six months and appear to be the result of attempts to get him to stand down voluntarily.

The press rumours appear to flow from Infineon's supervisory board which is thought to be unhappy about the company's financials, and particularly its share price. The supervisory board also got involved in the shenanigans surrounding the ousting of Ziebart's predecessor Ulrich Schumacher.

Infineon's financial performance and share price has been impaired by its 77 per cent ownership of DRAM manufacturer, Qimonda, which is separately listed on the New York stock exchange. Last month Infineon wrote down the book valuation of its shares in Qimonda by one billion euros.

The Infineon supervisory board is said to be dismayed at the length of time it has taken for Infineon to fully divest itself of Qimonda.

Last week, Eric Mayer, Vice President of Production Partner Management at Infineon, was asked why the divestment was taking so long. He replied:

"The short answer is that if you look at the CVs of our senior executives, everyone came through the DRAM school. Change in Germany is not easy. They just can't let go. They may have lost time by not starting earlier."

However Ziebart was never a DRAM executive, having joined Infineon from the automotive industry.

Ziebart has been notably successful in running the Infineon side of the business, taking Infineon to the No.2 position worldwide in the automotive chip industry, and to the No.4 position worldwide in the wireless chip industry, and forging potentially lucrative long-term agreements in emerging countries such as India.

See also: Mannerisms, the blog of David Manners. Updated twice daily, it's the distinctive, entertaining, authoritative and never dull commentary on the semiconductor industry, from someone who knows. Sign up for the Mannerisms eNewsletter.