Today it fell to Harry Wolin, AMD’s senior vice president and general counsel, to sound a bit like Orson Welles doing a 1970s wine commercial for Paul Masson. At the opening of AMD’s quarterly earnings conference call with analysts, Wollin made a statement that the search for a new CEO remains a “top priority,” but that meeting a timeline is “not the driving force for the search.” Finding the right person is. I hate to say it, but I knew it was going to be a complicated search.

Wolin doesn’t sound much like Orson Welles, but you can hear his statement below. And if you’re drawing a blank on the reference to Orson Welles in wine commercials, there’s an example of one from 1978 below that.

AMD-Harry-Wolin by ahess247

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s search for a new chief executive has entered its seventh month, a delay seen as an indicator of the challenges facing the chip maker’s next leader.

A number of prominent executives—including Michael Capellas, the former chief of WorldCom Inc. and Compaq Computer Corp., and William Nuti, chief executive of computer maker NCR Corp.—have turned down approaches by AMD since the company’s board forced out its leader in January, people familiar with the situation said.

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Conceding that Cisco has been “slow to make decisions” and “been surprised where it should not,” he promised to take “bold steps and make tough decisions.” The consensus appears to be that divestitures are coming.

Cisco has been an acquisition machine during the last decade, but has little to show for it. Obvious candidates for divestiture are its consumer products business, which includes the Linksys brand of home networking gear, and Pure Digital, the makers of the Flip Digital video cameras. Consumer products carry lower margins than other products, and Cisco’s already got enough problems with its gross margins, which have stood at 64 percent since 2008 and gone nowhere.

One problem, the analyst Brian Marshall of Gleacher and Co. wrote in a note to clients issued yesterday, is that Cisco has so thoroughly dominated its core networking markets that it has effectively saturated its market. In looking for new areas to grow into, Cisco has been forced to look for what Marshall calls “adjacent markets,” like consumer networking gear, TV set top boxes, among others, both of which sap the potential for margin growth.

And while it’s hard to argue that Cisco’s low valuation doesn’t create a buying opportunity, there’s a lot more to consider, Marshall says. While Cisco grew its total revenue base by 7 percent from 2008 to 2010, a group of smaller independent competitors–Marshall calls them the “chimps” compared to the Cisco “gorilla”–like Juniper, Checkpoint, F5 Networks, Aruba Networks and a few others–collectively added roughly the same amount of incremental revenue that Cisco did during the same period, and nibbled away at Cisco’s dominance in the process. “Innovative companies can still have an impact in the technology industry even when competing against an 800-pound gorilla,” Marshall wrote.

One ace in Cisco’s deck, Marshall says, is VBlock, a data-center-in-a-box made by VCE, a company Cisco jointly owns with EMC and VMWare, and run by former Compaq CEO Michael Capellas: Cisco adds the networking component, servers and management software, EMC brings the storage and VMWare brings the virtualization. The product is just getting off the ground, but VCE recently said it has a pipeline of orders worth $1 billion and 120 interested customers. It is at least something for Cisco bulls to hang their hats on for now.

If you didn’t foresee Apotheker’s appointment–and it seems few, if any, did–you can be forgiven your surprise, because the executive was apparently low enough on the list of external candidates that his name didn’t make it to the rumor mill. I’m told his name fell below those of candidates like former Compaq CEO Michael Capellas, IBM (IBM) software chief Steve Mills and his colleague Ginni Rometty, senior VP of the sales, marketing and strategy unit, none of whom was interested.

Apotheker, on the other hand, was–an important qualification.

And, for what it’s worth, HP (HPQ) insists he was the company’s first choice for CEO.

“Our board of directors cast the net very far and very wide both internally and externally,” HP director Bob Ryan said during a conference call this morning. “We ended up with six people who could have done the job. We decided Leo was the best and he was the only one we offered the job to.”

And by tapping him as CEO, HP has finally filled its leadership vacuum and under Apotheker may begin charting a more aggressive course in the enterprise systems and software markets. As TBR analyst Stuart Williams wrote yesterday, “ Apotheker fills a gap in HP’s expertise. HP is now a three-way player: HP is confident that hardware and services are on positive trajectories, and is once again filling out its portfolio by strengthening the third leg of the IT stool: hardware, software, and services.”

“After Gateway’s 2004 merger with eMachines, AMD attempted to revive the relationship it had enjoyed with Gateway until 2001, but experienced extremely limited success. While Gateway built one AMD-powered desktop model at the request of Circuit City, AMD remains locked out entirely of Gateway’s direct internet sales, its commercial offerings and its server line. According to Gateway executives, their Company has paid a high price for even its limited AMD dealings. They claim that Intel has beaten them into ‘guacamole’ in retaliation.”

– Excerpt from AMD’s 2005 complaint against Intel

Looks like it’s going to be a very busy fall for Intel legal. This morning, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the company, alleging that it violated state and federal laws with a “systematic campaign” of illegal conduct to maintain its monopoly.

At issue here, once again, is Intel’s alleged practice of using bribery and coercion to maintain its monopoly, something rival AMD complained about in its own antitrust suit against Intel (INTC) in 2005.

AMD (AMD) alleged, for example, that in 2000, Michael Capellas, then chief executive of Compaq Computer, told AMD that because of Compaq’s relationship with AMD, Intel withheld the delivery of some microprocessors he needed for servers. Capellas told AMD he would stop buying from it, saying he “had a gun to his head.”

Further, in 2004, Gateway officials are alleged to have told AMD that Intel “beat them into guacamole” in retaliation for their limited dealings with its rival. These are but two incidents in a list that includes similar alleged acts of coercion by Intel involving 38 other computer makers, distributors and retailers.

Apparently, Cuomo has found evidence of similar behavior. “Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Intel’s actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices.”

In recent days the commission has subpoenaed Intel, AMD and a number of their PC-maker customers as part of a probe into Intel’s pricing policies, which some claim are engineered to maintain a near-monopoly on the chip market. Intel, which has long claimed that its business practices are well within U.S. law, did so again today in a statement announcing its cooperation with the FTC investigation. “The evidence that this industry is fiercely competitive and working is compelling,” it said. “For example, prices for microprocessors declined by 42.4% from 2000 to the end of 2007. When competitors perform and execute, the market rewards them. When they falter and under-perform, the market responds accordingly.”

But what if a competitor, say AMD, falters and underperforms because a rival is threatening its customers? What if it falters because a rival is using illegal inducements to dissuade PC-makers from buying AMD processors and “knee-capping” those who do? Which is what AMD accused Intel of in its 2005 antitrust lawsuit. In 2000, for example, Michael Capellas, then chief executive of Compaq Computer, allegedly told AMD that Intel had withheld the delivery of some microprocessors he needed for servers because of Compaq’s relationship with AMD. He told AMD he would stop buying from it, saying he “had a gun to his head.” And in 2004, Gateway officials are alleged to have told AMD that Intel “beat them into guacamole” in retaliation for their limited dealings with its rival. And these are but two incidents in a list that includes similar alleged acts of coercion by Intel involving 38 other computer makers, distributors and retailers.

Empire State AG Andrew Cuomo today opened a formal antitrust investigation against Intel to determine if it violated state and federal antitrust laws by engaging in a relentless, worldwide campaign to coerce customers to refrain from dealing with its rivals. “After careful preliminary review, we have determined that questions raised about Intel’s potential anticompetitive conduct warrant a full and factual investigation,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Monopolistic practices are a serious concern, particularly for New Yorkers who are navigating an information-intensive economy.”

Harder still for Intel rivals navigating a potentially antitrust-intensive economy. Rivals like Advanced Micro Devices, who in 2005 filed its own antitrust lawsuit against Intel, accusing the company of using illegal inducements to dissuade OEMs from buying AMD processors and “knee-capping” those who did.

Harsh accusations, but ones supported by some disturbing anecdotal evidence. In 2000, for example, Michael Capellas, then chief executive of Compaq Computer, allegedly told AMD that Intel had withheld the delivery of some server chips because of Compaq’s relationship with AMD. He told AMD he would stop buying from it, saying he “had a gun to his head.” And in 2004, Gateway officials told AMD that Intel “beat them into guacamole” after they purchased some AMD microprocessors. These are but two incidents among 38 other alleged acts of coercion claimed by AMD in its suit.

Intel, of course, denies them all. Just as it denies AG Cuomo’s. “We believe our business practices are lawful,” said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. “We also believe that the microprocessor market is a competitive market and is behaving just as one would expect a competitive market to behave.”

John Paczkowski reads a lovely selection from Carly Fiorina’s appalling memoir, “Tough Choices”, about her clearly hostile feelings for former Compaq head Michael Capellas. The screamingly unhappy merger partner of the former Hewlett Packard chief, Capellas was named today as transaction processor First Data’s new CEO, despite the fact that Fiorina tried to strike a blow for something–though it is clearly not feminism–by calling him a horrid little girl in her book.

Here at AllThingsD.com, we try to be a whole lot nicer to the little ladies.

John also posts on the speculation on the rollout of a touchscreen iPod from Apple and Nielsen/NetRatings’ sure-to-be-controversial change in measurement criteria for Web sites.

His daily video on all this can be found here, or you can watch it below.

Michael was moody and inconsistent. He could agree to something on one day and object strenuously the next. … He could be charming and focused. He could be depressed and disengaged. He could be rude and abusive.

“… I told H-P’s board in midsummer [2001] that our biggest problem with integration would be Michael. I said that I would work hard to make him successful, but that we’d need to be prepared to move him out of the company within a year.

“… I concluded one of those conversations by saying ‘Michael is like the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When he’s good, he’s very, very good, and when he’s bad, he’s horrid.’ “

–Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina on former Compaq Chief Executive Michael Capellas in her book, “Tough Choices”

If First Data’s board of directors owns a copy of Fiorina’s memoir, they clearly don’t lend much credence to her withering assessment of Michael Capellas. Because this morning, the Denver-based transaction processor said it will name him as CEO following completion of the acquisition of the company by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Capellas will succeed Henry “Ric” Duques, who came back to the company in 2005 to oversee its reorganization.

Sharp guy, Capellas. When he left H-P in 2002, he received $14.4 million in severance, plus a $1.9 million incentive payment and $9.6 million to cover his taxes on the payments. When he took over at MCI, he nabbed a $2 million signing bonus. And when he left, he trousered a $39.2 million payout–$11.3 million for three years’ worth of salary and bonus; $18.5 million from a previously disclosed restricted stock grant; and $9.4 million in payments to cover the taxes on his exit package, according to an MCI proxy statement.

As ZDNet’s Larry Dignan notes, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to chart Capellas’s next moves. They’ll look like this:

• Capellas becomes CEO at First Data and gets hooked up with a sweet compensation package (there are no griping shareholders in private equity);
• First Data goes public again (after all, that’s how KKR will cash out);
• Capellas stays as CEO and perhaps sells First Data to another firm.

Sounds like a plan. All that’s missing is a step in which he pens the 3,390-word memo about how he’s going to “transform [First Data], and do it over the next 180 days.”

Michael was moody and inconsistent. He could agree to something on one day and object strenuously the next. … He could be charming and focused. He could be depressed and disengaged. He could be rude and abusive.

“… I told H-P’s board in midsummer [2001] that our biggest problem with integration would be Michael. I said that I would work hard to make him successful, but that we’d need to be prepared to move him out of the company within a year.

“… I concluded one of those conversations by saying ‘Michael is like the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When he’s good, he’s very, very good, and when he’s bad, he’s horrid.’ “

–Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina on former Compaq Chief Executive Michael Capellas in her book, “Tough Choices”

If First Data’s board of directors owns a copy of Fiorina’s memoir, they clearly don’t lend much credence to her withering assessment of Michael Capellas. Because this morning, the Denver-based transaction processor said it will name him as CEO following completion of the acquisition of the company by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Capellas will succeed Henry “Ric” Duques, who came back to the company in 2005 to oversee its reorganization.

Sharp guy, Capellas. When he left H-P in 2002, he received $14.4 million in severance, plus a $1.9 million incentive payment and $9.6 million to cover his taxes on the payments. When he took over at MCI, he nabbed a $2 million signing bonus. And when he left, he trousered a $39.2 million payout–$11.3 million for three years’ worth of salary and bonus; $18.5 million from a previously disclosed restricted stock grant; and $9.4 million in payments to cover the taxes on his exit package, according to an MCI proxy statement.

As ZDNet’s Larry Dignan notes, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to chart Capellas’s next moves. They’ll look like this:

• Capellas becomes CEO at First Data and gets hooked up with a sweet compensation package (there are no griping shareholders in private equity);
• First Data goes public again (after all, that’s how KKR will cash out);
• Capellas stays as CEO and perhaps sells First Data to another firm.

Sounds like a plan. All that’s missing is a step in which he pens the 3,390-word memo about how he’s going to “transform [First Data], and do it over the next 180 days.”