AMD on the chopping block

[Lil' ½ Dead]

(Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co to explore options, which could include a sale, as the chipmaker struggles to find a role in an industry increasingly focused on mobile and away from traditional PCs, according to three sources familiar with the situation.


The company's stock surged 18 percent on the news before ending up 5 percent at $2.09 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sources told Reuters on Tuesday that an outright sale of the company is not a priority, and other options for AMD could include a sale of its portfolio of patents.

AMD said in an email to Reuters, "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."


One of Silicon Valley's oldest chipmakers, AMD is laying off engineers and some analysts are concerned it may not find new markets for its chips in time to reverse a declining cash reserve.


AMD's shares have fallen more than 60 percent this year, giving it a market value of about $1.4 billion. It also has long-term debt and capital lease obligations of about $2 billion.

A JPMorgan spokeswoman declined to comment.


Since the early 1980s, AMD has competed with much larger Intel and at times has made inroads with its PC and server chips. But setbacks at AMD limited those gains and AMD now faces new competition from companies designing low-cost and power-efficient chips based on ARM Holdings' technology.


Like Intel, Sunnyvale, California-based AMD was caught flat-footed in recent years with the emergence and fast growth of mobile devices.


But while Intel has deep pockets to fund research on new products to catch up, AMD faces declining cash flows and a more modest balance sheet

Exclusive: AMD hires bank to explore options - sources | Reuters

[MattyMatt]

Neil already saw this on HotHardware... AMD Refutes Reuters' Claim, Company Not Up For Sale - HotHardware

[Lil' ½ Dead]

Hope it's a sensationalist article.

[SamCR3]

Hope it's a sensationalist article.

Me too. I would hate to imagine what the enthusiast PC market would look like without AMD.

[Doctor_Death]

Yeah it would suck if they stop making desktop chips

[xelosia]

Chip maker AMD has strenuously denied claims that the company has hired a bank to seek a potential buyer, which could include the sale of the entire company.

The rumor kicked off when three sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that AMD had hired J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to "explore options" ranging from a "sale of its portfolio of patents" to "outright sale of the company," although the latter option is described as "not the main option".
While J.P. Morgan refused to comment on the rumor, AMD spokesperson Drew Prairie denied the claim, stating that: "[AMD is] not actively pursuing a sale of the company or significant assets at this time."
Prairie went on to say that, "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".
Things have not been good for AMD lately, with the third quarter results coming in "weaker than expected" and the company shed around 15 percent of its workforce. That said, the company is actively diversifying.
AMD shares have fallen by 60 percent over the past year.
AMD is already making plans to move into the ARM server market, and another report suggests that AMD's A-10 APU chips could be at the heart of the next-generation PlayStation console. Earlier this month the company also released a new range of Opteron server processors, a mix of quad-core, 8-core, 12-core and 16-core parts ranging in clock speeds from 2.3 GHz to 3.5 GHz


AMD: 'We're not for sale' | ZDNet

[Deliverance]

If AMD were to withdraw from desktops, it would cause serious damage to the PC as a platform; much more than these retarded PC Gaming doomsayers divine. If Intel were allowed to tyrannize the market there'd be a mass exodus of PC users into other platforms.

[SamCR3]

If AMD were to withdraw from desktops, it would cause serious damage to the PC as a platform; much more than these retarded PC Gaming doomsayers divine. If Intel were allowed to tyrannize the market there'd be a mass exodus of PC users into other platforms.

That's exactly what worries me and why I support AMD whenever I can. I wish the FX-8350 had better single threaded performance, but AMD did improve on Bulldozer and that's enough for me to upgrade to that chip. None of AMD's chips are terrible. I wish more enthusiast saw AMD as a viable platform. Another bonus is AMD chips aren't manufactured by Foxconn.

[Solara2xb]

AMD won't go away so easily... They will stick around for a while. The APU platform and the new piledriver architecture still gives AMD a boost of performance to value. Intel my have the crown on performance, but 80% of today's consumers are not looking to get the crown performance chips for daily use. AMD's OEM markets and with the new advancements of tablets and fuzion tech will bring them further. They just need to work out the kinks and they should recover. At least thats the hope of things.

I have been supporting AMD for a while, even tho I have most my main rigs as Intel systems I actually have more AMD systems at home but running other things suck as HTPC's and also my Data server along with my Parent's PCs are all running AMD systems.

[Lil' ½ Dead]

AMD Stock Drops Below $2

We hate to say it, but AMD might be circling the drain. If not, it's at least uncomfortably close to the basin. Stacy Rasgon, an analyst with Bernstein Research, described AMD as "univestable" at this point.

AMD's revenue in the third quarter of 2012 was down 25 percent compared to one year prior, resulting in a net loss of $157 million and an operating loss of $131 million.

"The PC industry is going through a period of very significant change that is impacting both the ecosystem and AMD," AMD president and CEO, Rory Read, said in a statement when announcing the company's Q3 financial results. "It is clear that the trends we knew would re-shape the industry are happening at a much faster pace than we anticipated. As a result, we must accelerate our strategic initiatives to position AMD to take advantage of these shifts and put in place a lower cost business model."

Doing the Limbo with AMD Stock: How Low Can You Go? | Maximum PC

[realneil]

If AMD goes down the drain, Intel will be able to name their price from here on out.
Don't think that they willl not stick it to us either.

[Solara2xb]

Wow, those prices are getting a little low for AMD, however if you are a investor and want to take a risk its a great time to buy AMD stock.
I am going to look at the Q10 report today from last quarter and see how its holding up.

I may look into buying some stock at this price.