Breaking: AMD to layoff 5% of its workforce, says The Inq

Wouldn't going fabless mean loosing their x86 license? I think I remember that their contract didn't allow to outsource >20% of CPU production.
 
Wouldn't going fabless mean loosing their x86 license? I think I remember that their contract didn't allow to outsource >20% of CPU production.

That's addressed in the article by the old AMD retaining a majority stake in the spun off fab company, until the contract comes up for renegotiation in a couple of years.
 
A couple of questions, though.

What's with the idea that Intel will be suddenly so accomodating that it would give AMD free rein to outsorce most or all of its manufacturing?

What's with the idea that AMD's fabs are capable of pulling in enough to take care of AMD's debts?
A good amount debt is tied to the Dresden fabs, and their processes are of limited utility to those who do not produce high-performance digital-only processors on a slightly-less-than-cutting-edge process.

What's with the speculation that AMD would be able to engineer a merger of Chartered Semiconductor, IBM's microelectronics division, and AMD's fabs?

The separation might make sense for one part of the cross-license agreement, namely the change of control provisions.
One clause states AMD can't make acquisitions that put its value over 1 1/3 of its pre-buyout worth, which these days is not that big a number.
If AMD's lawyers can argue that the spun-off fab division isolates AMD from a change of control, it would explain the gymnastics they're going through.
However, the fact that AMD would retain ownership of the fab company might mean this counts towards the value Intel will use to dispute the move.

This in turn would lower the possible value of AMD's current and future fabs.

I'm not a corporate lawyer, but I think Intel thought of this possibility, or something close to it.
 
Cripes almighty, who the hell is left?

Who or what can possibly be cut that won't involve AMD eating into its already dwindling future?
 
They'd also be making Bulldozer, AMD's future chip.
AMD doesn't have enough teams to punish one for underperforming, and to be honest I'd blame Phenom on a lot of people higher up than the design teams who were saddled with, in no particular order: a bad position, lousy leadership, and unrealistic deadlines (forced by the other two).
 
I'm uncertain how the ATI merger is responsible for AMD being non competitive in the CPU market for the 2 years since. While the graphics segment hasn't been a stellar performer the last couple years either, there's no doubt in my mind its outperformed the rest of AMD over that time.
 
5-10% doesn't exactly sound like the end of the world to me. More like needed slimming and good news. My thought is without performance leadership AMD is going to have to be the low cost alternative, and contrary to what some would like to believe that is definitely a very viable long term niche.

I dunno, this forum cheerleads AMD bad news a bit too much. I sighed when I saw 35 comments to this thread when most stories get just a few. The latest Jon Peddie reports show AMD gaining market share in graphics..but those weren't reported on at B3D but old peddie reports were..what gives? As well as the constant sourcing of Inq and Fudzilla in AMD bad news is a little..
 
5-10% doesn't exactly sound like the end of the world to me.

Not for you, but for the workforce it is. The lay off will take 6 months. It's a double punch in the overall team morale. This will surely harm the productivity, since 6months in this industry is a long cat.
 
Not for you, but for the workforce it is. The lay off will take 6 months. It's a double punch in the overall team morale. This will surely harm the productivity, since 6months in this industry is a long cat.

yep its clearly the end of the world for AMD there's no way they could recover from such a massive layoff, just like intel disappeared after their 10% layoff in 2006. ;)

Clearly its bad news if you are amongst the 10% getting cut, but its not necessarily going to negatively affect their productivity going forward.
 
yep its clearly the end of the world for AMD there's no way they could recover from such a massive layoff, just like intel disappeared after their 10% layoff in 2006. ;)

Clearly its bad news if you are amongst the 10% getting cut, but its not necessarily going to negatively affect their productivity going forward.

You did consider the somewhat significant(to say the least) difference in terms of HR between AMD and Intel, yes?And for once I'd like for someone to explain exactly how something that happened over at one of them necessarily is equally good/bad for the other company, as they're hardly identical.
 
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