The AMD Execution Thread [2007 - 2017]

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To me it looks like AMD and NVIDIA are going in the same direction. ARM CPUs and GPUs. AMD just needs to wake up their software support of professional GPU and GPGPU someday. Gotta wonder if their x86 stuff has a future anymore.

I don't really see how the classic ATI could survive now. NVIDIA diversified for a reason. Obviously Intel has changed too. Actually I find it amazing how little NVIDIA is trying to go right around Intel, but Intel sort of noticed since they apparently are run by smart people. AMD continued the head on effort and that hasn't turned out well.
 
After a sale, AMD wouldn't be manufacturing x86 parts anymore (it'd at the very least be complicated for the buyer to negotiate). This may be okay though, the openness and relevance of ARM seems to indicate that AMD is making the right move in integrating ARM into its APUs.
 
AMD says no plan to sell company or assets

Oukey, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's the truth. ;)

Then why hire a bank in the first place?

Well, because banks rule the world and people like Morgans are responsible for much... :rolleyes:

After a sale, AMD wouldn't be manufacturing x86 parts anymore

I wonder whether the anti-trust body thinks so too.
 
AMD could be trying to get some kind of financing done.
It could be a kind of corporate strip-tease where AMD comes in and out of cover sensually protesting that it's not for sale *or maybe tee-hee* in hopes of suckering someone into thinking they better buy before it's too late.

At this point, AMD's execs may believe that they aren't going to sell anything. The schizophrenic strategy shifts in the last few years indicate that they don't know if they're for sale or not.
 
How? By selling discrete graphics cards in a shrinking PC market with dropping attach rates?

Yeah, we hear about PC market shrinking all the time... but even if it shows a clear trend to shrinking, that doesn't mean it will disappear. Quite the opposite- some companies are making tones of money, it will stay quite big in all cases. And... this sounds like some type of annoying alarm to keep people's attention. But it is not so black.
 
Discrete graphics are shrinking mostly due to APU's at the low end but the high end will remain and that's where the money is anyway. No gamer will ever use intel graphics.

There is still money to be made at the high end, with licencing to other companies and custom SOC's. AMD's graphics division is still #1 in technology terms but they will just get dragged down further and further with AMD's cuts. If Nvidia can sort of make it with Tegra then why can't a new ATI do the same starting from a better perf/watt point?

They need to be spun off and given good branding. Name themselves after a fruit - preferably not a lemon or banana - and everything else will fall into place. There is no hope for them or anyone else still at AMD barring a miracle.
 
Since I'm too lazy to read the previous 95 pages this may have been posted allready :

AMD has hired JPMorgan Chase explore options, including the sale of patents, and possibly the sale of the entire company, reports Reuters. They attribute this to "sources familiar with the situation," but also have the following statement from AMD confirming the possibility of selling off technology, but stating the company itself is not on the market: "AMD's board and management believe that the strategy the company is currently pursuing to drive long-term growth by leveraging AMD's highly-differentiated technology assets is the right approach to enhance shareholder value. AMD is not actively pursuing a sale of the company or significant assets at this time."
 
Out of all the companies that the Reuters fellows quoted, none seems like a likely candidate, or even as having any reason whatsoever to buy AMD. My personal (and based solely on a hunch that may turn out to be awfully wrong) guess is that is a purchase is to occur, it'll be at the hands of ATIC. It is possible that at this point in time they are struggling with getting the deal to materialise in a form that is palatable for American authorities. It is also possible that I am awfully wrong, however anybody else, from Samsung to MS (and whomever) would just wait for the carcass to drop to pick up the interesting leftovers (read IP), since at this point in time poaching engineering / technical talent from AMD is just a matter of inquiring...and far cheaper than buying off a 11000 strong behemoth of a company, only to struggle with absorbing it afterwards. I'd also think everybody else would be leery of pissing off Intel / entering into a battle with them.

ATIC, on the other hand, is under no such constraints, and their driving objective seems to be the build-up of a portfolio of top-technology assets. As chumpy as AMD seems versus its competitors at this point, there aren't many companies that have similar traits and are buyable (cheaply, especially when you have some ownership and a reasonable voice in the board).
 
Yes, I agree with AlexV, although my thought for what AMD would hope for is a merger with an established, midlevel ARM SoC company, perhaps one already a member of the HSA.
 
The stock just keeps going down, down, down. AMD's market capitalization is now just $1.33 billion.

At this rate, someone will make a Kickstarter project to buy the company and turn it around.
 
The stock just keeps going down, down, down. AMD's market capitalization is now just $1.33 billion.

At this rate, someone will make a Kickstarter project to buy the company and turn it around.

AMD's market cap at $1.33 billion is now below Imagination's at US$1.8B, and far below ARM's at US$15B. That is a reversal of fortune that would have been inconceivable 5 years ago.
 
I wonder how Sony and Microsoft feel about this, assuming the rumors are accurate and they are both counting on AMD as an ongoing concern for the next 5-10 years.

AMD would need to assuage investors or partners that it has something that can keep it alive long enough to be considered relevant. Hiring J.P. Morgan means something of consequence is hoped for.
I'm not sure what terms any extra debt would entail, since AMD is already so poorly rated.

Random unsubstantiated thought: a spin-off once ARM cores are ready in 2014.
ARM, Seamicro, and forward-looking GPU production (maybe) float off on their own, while x86 and legacy GPU or APU designs and the x86 cross-licensing go with the original AMD.

The bulk of the debt would go the legacy company as it procedes to meet any contractual obligations for legacy products like the product cycles for business-class x86 and any consoles. Possibly, the jettisoned company could license back some GPU tech or Seamicro tech going forward. The decision to integrate the Seamicro fabric onto ARM cores first instead of an x86 would be a way of removing one stumbling block for the separation by not having Seamicro inextricably tied in silicon to an x86 core.

The jettisoned company could be acquired or more fully invested in without running into existing legal constraints with regards to funding and ownership, while the old AMD tries to pay off its creditors on the initially larger revenues of a dying business with a minimalist organization that tries to extract as much as it can from what it hasn't run into teh ground and little it will spend for forward-looking tech--or it implodes, whatever.
 
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