Questions about Intel succession raise ugly head

PEOPLE ARE already wondering who will succeed CEO Paul Otellini as head of the Intel Corporation today.

Those questions arose as sources here in Old Beijing confirmed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates flies into Beijing Wednesday in the vanguard of a Microsoft press briefing Thursday about emerging markets. We reported this earlier.

Whether AMD is part of this briefing remains unclear.

Paul Otellini is a young man but various bets are being put on his successor. We have discovered there are three schools of thought on this controversial topic.

British guy Sean Maloney is being tipped as the next top guy. Anand Chandrasekher is being tipped as the top guy too. And Pat Gelinsger is the relative outsider at 100/1 against.

We can't imagine Otellini is getting out of Intel but the jockeying has already begun.

To us, this all seems a trifle premature and betting is banned in China, so we can't place any bets at all. It seems to us another horse might gallup on the home straight and pip the top four contenders.

God willing it's not Bill Gates. He never liked Intel that much anyway. He was far more comfortable with Big Blue.