Infineon CEO Quits Abruptly

By Jessica Davis -- Electronic News, 3/25/2004

Infineon Technologies AG's Chief Executive Ulrich Schumacher resigned abruptly and from the company on Wednesday afternoon in Germany.

Schumacher resigned during the course of an "extraordinary supervisory board meeting," a spokesman for the company said.  The board meeting was unscheduled.

The resignation is effective immediately. Max Dietrich Kley, chairman of the supervisory board will assume the position of CEO for a period of not more than one year, the spokesman said. It is standard procedure for the chairman to assume the CEO role if the CEO suddenly resigns, according to the spokesman.

"He is an experienced business leader," the spokesman said. Kley is a former vice-chair of BASF, a German chemical and pharmaceutical company. Kley has been chairman since 2002. The spokesman said business would continue as usual.

Infineon officials were scrambling to make sense of the news, and could not yet comment on the reasons behind Schumacher's resignation.  Reports said that the IG Metall union, which represents Infineon workers, said that the resignation came over criticism regarding Schumacher's "authoritarian" management style, views on outsourcing, and comments about possibly moving the company out of Germany.

Schumacher has headed Infineon, which is known for DRAM chips, for the last five years, since Siemens AG spun it off.  The 46-year-old took Infineon back into the black last year after nine quarters of losses.