Wolfgang Ziebart, the CEO of the German memory maker Infineon, is stepping down and will be replaced with board member Peter Bauer. It appears that the company's board was not satisfied with Ziebart's performance in reversing Infineon's losses and has decided that urgent steps have to be taken to safeguard the company's future.

Reuters reports that Ziebart's contract was due to expire late in 2009 and he is currently negotiating the terms of his early departure, which will happen in just a few days, on June 1. Ziebart joined Infineon Technologies AG in September 2004, coming from automobile supplier Continental AG where he led the range of automotives of system with focus on automotive electronics.

A meeting of the supervisory board held today has voted unanimously to support chairman Max Dietrich Kley, who previously voiced harsh criticism of Ziebert's apparent lack of decisive action to improve the company's financial performance. Max Dietrich has said that the new CEO Peter Bauer "will focus on executing and expanding according to the 'IFX 10-Plus' program the necessary and already initiated measures and programs."

Infineon Technologies AG was created in 1999 as the spinoff of the semiconductor operations of its parent company, Siemens AG. The company is a major player in the field of semiconductor and system solutions for automotive, industrial and multimarket sectors as well as memory chips.

In the United States, Infineon has a subsidiary based in Milpitas, California. The company has a global presence through other subsidiaries as well. Its fabrication plants are located in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and China. The main R&D centers are based in Europe.