Radeon to Split from AMD as a Separate Business

AMD has announced that it is spinning off its Radeon graphics card brand as a separate division. Raja Koduri has been appointed as the Head of the division, dubbed the Radeon Technology Group. Koduri has been with AMD for many years, with a brief stint at Apple in-between. While Radeon is not yet its own business entity, it is thought that AMD is preparing for that eventuality, and that the new division is part of that transition.

AMD acquired Radeon back in 2005 as part of its $5.4 billion purchase of ATI Technologies, both becoming absorbed by the new parent company. AMD has been fighting a battle on two fronts ever since – against Intel with its microprocessors and versus NVIDIA with its graphic cards range – and is losing both, with stock falling to a five-year low of $1.45 billion. Designating Radeon as a separate division is part of AMD’s larger strategy to recover ground against NVIDIA.

The Radeon Technology Group will have the autonomy to pursue its own strategy for developing and selling graphics cards and GPUs, while APUs are presumed to be the purview of both AMD and Radeon.

Former head of Radeon Matthew Skinner is leaving the business after 17 years, while Roy Taylor and Sean Burke are expected to take on key roles in the new Radeon Technology Group.

Thank you Venture Beat for providing us with this information.