LONDON — Wolfgang Ziebart has resigned as CEO and president of Infineon Technologies AG, with effect from June 1. Peter Bauer has assumed the position of spokesman of the management board.

The resignation, which had been speculated on in the days prior to the announcment, was due to "different opinions" on the strategic orientation of the company.

The supervisory and the management boards of the company have now agreed a plan called 'IFX Plus-10' that is intended to improve the company's financial position. A meeting of the supervisory board held Monday (May 26) passed a unanimous vote of confidence in its chairman Max Dietrich Kley.

Infineon did not make clear whether Bauer would be promoted to the position of CEO and president to take over from Ziebart, but quoted Kley praising Bauer.

"With his vast experience, Peter Bauer will focus on executing and expanding according to the 'IFX 10-Plus' program the necessary and already initiated measures and programs. This will allow us to further improve the company's strengths and to accelerate the operational execution of the strategic re-alignment," Kley said in a statement.

No indication was given of what "different opinions" might have given rise to Ziebart's resignation. Rumors have resurfaced recently about plans to merge Infineon with the private equity controlled NXP for reasons of operational efficiency.

During his four-year term of office, Ziebart separated Infineon from its former memory operation, which was spun off into Qimonda AG, although extreme competition in DRAM pricing hurt the financial results of both Qimonda and Infineon in 2007.

"Infineon's technology and market position is outstanding in various areas. If we continue to further focus our resources and execute our measures thoroughly and fast, we have good chances for a prosperous future," said Bauer in the same statement.

"During the last years, the future direction of the company has been largely set. But we have to execute and, if necessary, extend our measures step by step and at high speed. I look forward to contribute to achieve our goals together with our highly qualified employees."

The 'IFX 10-Plus' comprises three main elements:

- Margin improvement through optimized portfolio management

- Margin improvement through a stronger cutting of cost of manufacture

- Margin improvement through increasing the efficiency of the organization

Details of the IFX 10-Plus-program would be added over the next few weeks, Infineon said.

Peter Bauer became a member of the Infineon board in 1999. He heads the automotive, industrial and multimarket business group within Infineon and is responsible for central sales functions.

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