AMD's Rick Bergman Now CEO at Synaptics

AMD's Rick Bergman has found a new job. He has been hired as permanent CEO at Synaptics.

Bergman left AMD last week as the chipmaker continues to clean house. The executive's departure was somewhat expected, as he was believed to be the natural choice to succeed previous CEO Dirk Meyer, who departed AMD earlier this year. Bergman joined AMD as part of the acquisition of ATI, where he was the second man in charge behind CEO Dave Orton. Rick Bergman was senior vice president and general manager of AMD's Products Group.

Synaptics today announced that 47-year old Rick Bergman was appointed president and CEO and was chosen to succeed Russ Knittel, who was interim president and CEO since October 2010. Knittel will retire as employee, but remain active on the Synaptics board of directors.

There was no information of compensation, but SEC filings reveal that Bergman was given 40,000 shares of Synaptics stock valued at about $931,000 and was given the right to acquire 430,000 shares at a price of $23.25, which is slightly below today's price of about $23.73.