Sunday, October 14th 2012
AMD to Slash Nearly a Third of its Workforce
AMD is reportedly working to cut its workforce by nearly a third, about 20 to 30 percent, according to sources who spoke with All Things D. That's anywhere between 2,200 to 3,300 jobs. The sources say the cuts could affect employees in engineering and sales, departments that have been spared in previous rounds of cuts. The cuts will be deep enough to show that AMD is scaling back its product offerings. It's likely that the cuts could be announced along with the company's quarterly results due on October 18.
AMD CEO Rory Read is said to have assembled a team of business consultants from McKinsey & Company and BCG to guide the company through the process. McKinsey's will handle the job cuts, while BCG will be consulting on a "grand strategy" that could take the company forward.
Source:
All Things D
AMD CEO Rory Read is said to have assembled a team of business consultants from McKinsey & Company and BCG to guide the company through the process. McKinsey's will handle the job cuts, while BCG will be consulting on a "grand strategy" that could take the company forward.
52 Comments on AMD to Slash Nearly a Third of its Workforce
Robert Palmer- director since 1999*
Bruce Clafin- director since 2003
W.Michael Barnes - director since 2003*
H.Paulett Eberhart- director since 2004
John Caldwell- director since 2006
* Two of the three directors that make up the Audit and Finance Committee.
Thanks guys- take a well earned rest.
or perhaps...did you?
:roll:
And talking about Engineering, it's apparently not the CPU division but the Graphics division...
AMD and their loyal followers have made an art form out of blaming outgoing executives for their woes (when they aren't playing the beat-down underdog vs Goliath card). Without exception, every CEO, and many of the other top management have been hired by the board. The board also dictate the company's governance and direction. Rory Read memo to all AMD staff as publicized by S|A (see their front page)
If buzz words and marketing pap were dollar bills, AMD would be bigger than Wal-Mart and IBM combined.
Yes, just 25. They are, after all, just a small engineering firm, and nothing else now.
Not that I want peopel to lose their job..that sucks, but if AMD is to last long-term, some drastic changes have to take place, and I dunno that the board of directors needs the axing...are they even paid? I mean, if they are, then perhaps, but they should fire whoever made the choice for spending money to hire someone to figure out who needs to go...
Wonder who they are selling out to? Samsung? Nvidia? Nvidia could spare to spend a few hundred million fighting Intel for the patent rights, or just threatening to pull the X64 cross license if they bought AMD/ATI.
AMD could conceiveably just limp along, divesting itself of market presence and selling IP as they go. They could do OK just working in the APU/console space (as a small company), with maybe the Radeon division spun off with part ownership going to another company. You'd think that AMD would need some ownership in the graphics company for the development of APU's and consoles.
In the end, AMD wont go to the wall. The FTC wouldn't allow Intel to have a complete monopoly....maybe Intel buys a few million AMD chips just to keep them afloat - don't know what they'd do with them...send them straight to China for recycling?...use them to tile the urinals in the executive washrooms at Santa Clara? (might put a smile on Otellini's face)
As for another company buying them out, who do you think people recognize more; AMD or IBM? What about between AMD and Samsung? AMD does not have name recognition, and that's part of why they don't make any headway against Intel. I would venture as far as to say more people probably know of companies like Qualcomm than AMD. If a larger company--preferably one with manufacturing capabilities--buys out AMD, it would probably help them quite a bit. The rumor is that most of the cuts are to the Graphics Division, and that is horribly irresponsible on AMD's behalf, because the Graphics Division has been doing excellent (especially by comparison) while the CPU division is just bleeding dry. I would love to see another competitor in the GPU or CPU market, but it's just not likely all things considered. It's possible Intel could invest in AMD, the same way Microsoft invested in Apple when they were on the verge of failing. An Intel monopoly would not lead to a technology standoff, but it would probably hurt Intel more than anyone.
Only when they throw away the stupid high frequency BD design and come up with a new smart more IPC, low ghz and low power consumption they can even do something to the company.
This would also lead to ARM actually seeming viable since it would be Intel sitting around doing nothing while ARM had time to develop valid desktop CPU's.
I said it in another thread AMD is to big to fail. Soon it will be like GM (Government Motors) with its new name Americuh! Micro Devices.
Nobody could ever come out of nowhere and instantly stand up to nVidia.
HEEEEEEYYYYY SEXY CLOCKING!!!
Ya know that would totally sell. AMD hurry up and sign PSY on for your next marketing stunt! Might actually sell people on the insane overclock hype!
sacking 1/3 employees means they are really broke.