The AMD Financial Analysis Thread

[Arun]

The financial analysis (either good or bad) for AMD will now be discussed in this thread instead of the old one, which has been renamed as per its new focus exclusively on execution. The idea behind that and the overall forum reorganisation is pretty simple: a lower-noise environment in key forums that encourages insiders/professionals and knowledgeable outsiders to contribute more, while providing better topics to read for lurkers.

This thread should be used for discussion of:
- Analysis of financial prospects for the next quarters.
- Financial implications of negative or positive news.
- AMD's balance sheet and consequences.
- Any other financial bits you can think of.

Sorry for not starting the thread with some points of my own, I'll hopefully write a short balance sheet analysis tommorow here.

 

[v_rr]

Q4 2007 GPU shipments
Comparing Q3 2007 to Q4 2007:

Overall:

ATI grew from 19.1% -> 22.8% (up 3,7%)
Nvidia lost from 33.9% -> 31.8% (down 2,1%)
Intel grew from 38.0 -> 41.1% (up 3,1%)

Desktop:

ATI grew from 17.5% -> 19% (up 1,5%)
Nvidia lost from 37.8% -> 37.1% (down 0,7%)
Intel grew from 33.5 -> 37.7% (up 2,2%)

Mobile:

ATI grew from 23.4% -> 29% (up 6,4%)
Nvidia equal from 22.8% -> 22.8% (equal)
Intel lost from 50.9% -> 47% (down 3,9%)

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AMD RS780 IGP chipset boosts entry-level CPU sales

AMD's recent launched RS780 IGP chipset is enjoying strong demand in the China market and has boosted the demand for the company's entry-level CPUs, according to channel vendors in China.

AMD's entry-level CPU market share in China was between 40% to 50% before the launch of RS780 motherboards. But since the launch, sales have jumped to 60%-70%, noted the sources.

The strong sales can be attributed to the RS780's multimedia capabilities. AMD's decision to include its UVD engine as part of the chipset allows systems to playback DVDs and even high-definition video without the need for a powerful CPU.

http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20080201PD209.html

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Gateway will use AMD CPUs

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. got some much-needed good news this week when Gateway Inc. announced that it's trading in Intel chips for AMD Phenom quad-core processors in two new high-end desktop machines.

Gateway, which has been mostly an Intel-only company for years, yesterday unveiled AMD-based GM and GT series desktop systems. And for a microprocessor company that has been struggling with missed shipment dates, financial woes and a slide in mind share, this is welcome news, according to industry analysts.

"This is very positive for AMD," said Dean Freeman, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "Almost any wins are good news for AMD at this time.

http://www.computerworld.com/action...eBasic&articleId=9060479&source=NLT_PM&nlid=8

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AMD to grab over 50% discrete notebook GPU market share in 2Q08

Yen Ting Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Friday 1 February 2008]

The discrete graphics card market for high-end notebooks is expected to see a big turn around with Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Dell ready to adopt AMD's latest discrete graphics solution for their notebooks. This will increase AMD's market share to over 50% in the second quarter this year, according to sources at notebook vendors.

In 2007, AMD's proportion of the discrete notebook GPU market was less than 20%-30% due to vendor concerns that Intel's relationships would change following the acquisition of ATI, and so were unwilling to adopt Intel and ATI combinations for their notebooks. Additionally, uncertainty over the Radeon HD 2000 series also impacted vendor and consumer confidence.

However, in the second quarter this year, around 55-60% of vendors' high-end notebooks will adopt AMD's M82 and M86 discrete GPUs due to their advantages in low power consumption and cost over Nvidia's 9P, 9M and 9E notebook solutions, noted the sources.

Nvidia responded in saying that most major OEMs are still supporting Nvidia GPUs, but declined to comment on unannounced products nor the product planning of its partners.

AMD did not respond for comment by the time of publication.

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/MailHome.asp?datePublish=2008/2/1&pages=PD&seq=210