This week the Intel Board of Directors announced that Bob Swam, the former chief financial officer and interim CEO since mid-2018, has taken on the top job permanently. Vice President of Finance and Director of Corporate Planning Todd Underwood will take on the CFO position in an interim capacity while the board conducts a search for candidates.
In a Jan. 31 email to Intel employees with the subject line “Driving Intel Forward,” Swan laid out four “critical imperatives” the company will focus on: being “bold and fearless;” moving from a PC-centric strategy to a data-centric strategy; improving execution; and evolving company culture.
“As an executive team,” Swan wrote, “we will focus relentlessly on building great teams and culture, and delighting our customers. Leadership is a team sport and is about bringing together the team, setting the direction and letting the team be unencumbered – so they can achieve things nobody thought was possible. My biggest learning over the last seven months is how important we all are to our customers, and the responsibility and opportunity that goes with that.”
Following the announcement, Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy spoke to Swan; Moor tweeted that he “was glad to hear [Swan’s] thoughts on the company’s importance and impact on its customer’s success related to Intel’s execution. Bob also explained that while initially he wasn’t interested in the role, as he was in the role, he really liked it. Finally, he used the word ‘fearless’ when I asked him about taking some risks in the context of Intel being conservative.”
Intel reports Q4 revenue of $18.7 billion
The company reported 9% year-over-year growth in Q4 to $18.7 billion in revenue and record-setting full-year revenue of $70.8 billion, up 13% compared to the previous year. In 2018 the company generated $29.4 billion from operations, including $14.3 billion in free cash flow. For 2019, Intel expects full-year revenue of $71.5 billion and first quarter revenue of $16 billion.
Breaking down the revenue by business group, the PC-focused group led the way generating $37 billion. In the so-called “data-centric” groups, the Data Center Group accounted for the lion’s share with $6.1 billion followed by the memory business with $4.3 billion, the IoT Group with $3.5 billion (down compared to Q4 2017 but up 9% year-over-year) and the FPGA and programmable devices group coming in at $2.1 billion.
Seeking Alpha’s Roman Luzgin wrote, “Intel’s performance demonstrates strong financial efficiency standards during difficult times, which is the primary reason to own the stock at the moment. Although the competition continues to be stiff, Intel stock provides a solid margin of safety.
