AMD promotes an engineer, Dirk Meyer, to President/COO

Sunnyvale (CA) - This morning, AMD announced it is promoting Dirk Meyer, formerly president and chief operating officer of the company’s Microprocessor Solutions Sector (MSS) division, to President and COO of the company as a whole. And as part of its effort to give everyone a slice of the celebration cake, the company announced late this afternoon it will be offering another $500 million worth of common stock.

Meyer has been with the company for just over 10 years, having joined as an engineer on the Athlon microprocessor project, and risen through the ranks as a vice president, in various levels, in the Computational Products Group. But his rising star became a streaking comet when he took charge of the Opteron server-based CPU project, giving AMD some serious inroads in a market it had yet to crack. His appointment to the #2 position in the company represents the ascension of a true engineer in the corporate ranks, as well as a much-needed restructuring at the top : Now Hector Ruiz can concentrate on just being Chairman and CEO.

The Street.com is reporting this afternoon that AMD will use up to 65% of the proceeds gained from this latest stock sale for capital expenditures, as well as to pay existing debt.