Last month, in a game of C-level musical chairs, first Qualcomm (QCOM +0.52%) lost its chief financial officer when Bill Keitel stepped down, and then Applied Materials (AMAT +2.13%) lost its CFO, George Davis, when Qualcomm tapped him to replace Keitel.
With Davis expected to move to Qualcomm on March 8, Applied had to move fast to find a replacement, and this morning, it announced that it has found him -- right down the hall.
Today, Applied Materials announced that it's promoting former Varian Semiconductor CFO Bob Halliday (Applied bought Varian back in November 2011) to CFO of the parent company. Praising Halliday's "leading track record of accomplishment" at Varian, where he was named a top CFO by Institutional Investor magazine, Applied Materials Chief Executive Officer Mike Splinter expressed confidence that Halliday will be "an outstanding leader for our global finance team" at Applied.
Investors seem to agree. Applied Materials shares finished up 3% in Tuesday trading at $13.63.
