AMD reduces 10% of its workforce
Chipmaker AMD, Intel's main rival, said Thursday it will cut about 1,200 jobs in an attempt to get their costs under control.
The layoffs represent about 10% of AMD's 11,600 employees worldwide. AMD said it expects to see the benefits of job cuts at once, earning $ 10 million in savings during the current quarter and $ 118 million next year.
The company also said it would implement certain "operational efficiency initiatives" that will save an additional $ 90 million next year. Do not go into detail about his plans.
AMD job cuts cost a little more than $ 100 million in the current quarter.
That leaves the company financially for the year ahead of the company, with $ 200 million released for reinvestment. AMD said it plans to use the money to further their investments in new technologies such as chips that use less energy to mobile devices such as tablets. It also intends to invest more in emerging markets around the world, and in the cloud-based technologies.
Shares of AMD (AMD, Fortune 500), which rose slightly in after hours trade, have fallen by almost 30% this year. Unlike Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), which has faced declining demand for personal computers this year, AMD has had a direct impact. The company slashed its business outlook about half of demand due to concerns of September.
However, AMD is operating profitably. He earned $ 668 million in the first nine months of 2011 sales of $ 4.9 billion, a slight decrease in sales over the same period last year.
AMD is known for PC processors lighting-fast is often more powerful than its much larger rival Intel. But the fastest growing PC industry is small, mobile devices that require mini-consuming machines microchips to preserve the battery life - not just specialty AMD.
The company is hoping to change things next year as it begins to sell chips to Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) Windows 8 tablets. Despite Microsoft's decision to open the Windows platform for companies operating chips based on ARM processor rival (ARM) platform that most smart phones in use today, AMD believes it can offer the right combination of speed and battery protection to improve their lot.
AMD reduces 10% of its workforce
