Intel. Laser Focus & No More Meaningless Life-Time Value Foundry Deal Updates

Intel interim co-CEOs David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus (MJ) both attended Barclay’s 22nd Annual Global Technology Conference on December 12. It was their first joint appearance since assuming their new roles on December 2 and they came across as being very much in sync in terms of the challenges facing the company. So much so in fact, one wonders if the pair had a role to play in Mr. Gelsinger’s abrupt departure.

Catch phrase of the event was “Laser Focus”, used five times in all.

we're going to be laser focused on how do we take advantage of the investments we made how do we bring customers into those fabs and start to see wafers fill them

being really laser focused on building the right products to regain share we've two products coming with Clearwater forest and DMR

we're laser focused was obviously made very large investments in our fab footprint and we need it much better ROI for the investment that we've made so we're going to be laser focused on how do we take advantage of that

The clear implication here is that, under Mr. Gelsinger’s leadership, the company was not laser focused on these important details. This is despite the fact that, shortly after taking up the CEO role, he promised a “return to a grovian, maniacal execution” for the company:

Overall, we found more value in this week’s Barclays session with Intel compared to the UBS session last week. Mr Zinsner was more circumspect about the prospect of foundry being fully carved out compared to his prior “no change in strategy” stance. For her part, MJ was forthright in her remarks, speaking frankly about the challenges in the Data Center segment of her newly minted Products Group. Let’s dig in…