Chipmaker giant Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich resigns

Brian Krzanich, who has been the CEO of the technology giant Intel (INTC) since 2003, has announced his resignation today from the group. The company’s board has named Chief Financial Officer Robert Swan as Interim CEO, effective immediately.

The chipmaker was informed recently that Krzanich had a mutual relationship with an Intel employee in the past. Intel had employed internal and external counsels to undertake a thorough investigation into the matter and it was confirmed that Krzanich had violated the company’s non-fraternization policy, following which the board has accepted his resignation.

Intel said that it has begun a search for a permanent CEO, including both internal and external candidates. The company also anticipates reporting record second quarter, with revenues expected to come in at about $16.9 billion and adjusted earnings of about $0.99 per share.

Krzanich first joined the company in 1982 as an engineer and served as Chief Operating Officer prior to being elevated to the position of Chief Executive Officer. As CEO, Krzanich tried to guide the chipmaker towards the technological advances of big data and self-driving cars. However, amidst these, he also had to deal with security fears concerning Intel’s chips in consumer devices.

With accelerating data-centric revenue, which lifted Intel’s first quarter results, the company is off to a vibrant start in the first half of the year and expects the full year to be another record year.

Related: Data-centric businesses lift Intel’s first quarter results

In late last 2017, Krzanich was under suspicion of insider trading, while he sold about $39 million worth of Intel’s shares after the company was informed of the Spectre (Spectre breaks the isolation between different applications) security flaws. Last year,  Krzanich was criticized over his reaction to the Meltdown and Spectre flaws.

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Intel’s stock dropped more than 1% in the initial trading hours today on the news of Krzanich’s exit from the company.