Motorola Exec Named AMD President, COO

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. named Hector Ruiz, head of Motorola Inc.’s computer chip business, its new president and chief operating officer. Ruiz replaces Atiq Raza, who was heir apparent to Chairman and Chief Executive Jerry Sanders until he resigned suddenly in July. Sanders, AMD’s founder, has been running the company since Raza’s departure. AMD has had just three profitable quarters in the last 2 1/2 years as it struggles to compete with chip giant Intel Corp. AMD shares jumped $5.50 to close at $40 on the NYSE. Ruiz, 54, is credited with turning around Motorola’s money-losing semiconductor business.

RealNetworks Inc. said that it bought closely held Netzip Inc. of Atlanta for about $268 million in stock to acquire its software for quickly downloading files from the Internet. RealNetworks also reported fourth-quarter net income of $6.1 million, or 7 cents a share, 2 cents better than estimates, contrasted with a loss of $2.2 million, or 3 cents, a year ago. The Seattle-based company also said it will split its stock 2-for-1 next month.

* Ask Jeeves Inc. agreed to buy closely held Direct Hit Technologies Inc. for about $506.9 million in stock to improve its Internet search services.