Back in early October 2018, yours truly said that Bob is the most serious candidate despite the fact that all main media dropped him as a candidate. People focused on other candidates, but Bob wanted the job and finally got it.

He was leading Intel after Krzanich got fired for a consensual relationship that was against Intel’s policy. Bob did say that he was not after the CEO job, but people mostly do that to stop press pestering them. He's been onthe  board of Intel since late June and it looks like he did a good job. Intel is still on quite a good course with the hope that 10nm will ship in holiday season 2019. Bob and the rest of the 107,000 people at Intel really need this.

This is what the Chairman of Intel’s Board Andy Bryant and Bob said about the new opportunity.

As Intel continues to transform its business to capture more of a large and expanding opportunity that includes the data center, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving, while continuing to get value from the PC business, the board concluded after a thorough search that Bob is the right leader to drive Intel into its next era of growth,” said Chairman Andy Bryant. “The search committee conducted a comprehensive evaluation of a wide range of internal and external candidates to identify the right leader at this critical juncture in Intel’s evolution. We considered many outstanding executives and we concluded the best choice is Bob. Important in the board’s decision was the outstanding job Bob did as interim CEO for the past seven months, as reflected in Intel’s outstanding results in 2018. Bob’s performance, his knowledge of the business, his command of our growth strategy, and the respect he has earned from our customers, our owners, and his colleagues confirmed he is the right executive to lead Intel.”

“In my role as interim CEO, I’ve developed an even deeper understanding of Intel’s opportunities and challenges, our people and our customers,” Swan said. “When I was first named interim CEO, I was immediately focused on running the company and working with our customers. When the board approached me to take on the role permanently, I jumped at the chance to lead this special company. This is an exciting time for Intel: 2018 was an outstanding year and we are in the midst of transforming the company to pursue our biggest market opportunity ever. I’m honored to have the chance to continue working alongside our board, our leadership team, and our more than 107,000 superb employees as we take the company forward.”