Spansion Inc. President and Chief Executive Bertrand Cambou resigned amid the flash-memory maker's plan to restructure and pursue a sale or merger.

The move comes about two weeks after Spansion said it would restructure its balance sheet and look to sell itself or merge with another flash-memory maker as it continued to struggle with slumping prices and the prospect of weakening demand.

Spansion named Executive Vice President Boaz Eitan as interim president. He joined the company early last year after the company he founded, Saifun Semiconductors Ltd., was acquired by Spansion. Mr. Cambou will provide consulting services.

Many semiconductor manufacturers cut their fourth-quarter earnings forecasts in the past two months as the global economic slowdown worsened, sapping demand for electronic devices that use a variety of chips. Falling demand has resulted in production-line shutdowns, salary cuts and layoffs at many chip companies.

Makers of flash memory, chips of which are found in such devices as MP3 music players and digital cameras, have been grappling with extended price declines caused by oversupply, and no recovery is predicted until late this year.