AMD Confirms Drop In Revenue and Projects Layoffs

AMD has just released its third-quarter results and, as expected, the company plans to restructure in order to cope with the worsening economic situation.

AMD made $1.27 billion in revenue over the third quarter of 2012, 25% less than the same period in 2011. The firm suffered a net loss of $157 million with a 31% gross margin.

It's AMD's Computing Solutions segment that has borne the brunt of the downturn, with an operating loss of $114 million. Computing Solutions earned $927 million over the past three months, compared to $1,286 million in the third quarter of 2011.

The video card-building Graphics segment helped limit the damage with an $18 million operating income up from $12 million the same time last year. Its net revenue, however, dropped from $403 million last year to $342 million this year. AMD graphics cards have rose in retail sales and dropped in the OEM segment.

A Wave of Layoffs: 15% Must Go

As was already circulating in recent rumours, to deal with the financial woes AMD is planning a major restructuring. The Silicon Valley firm will be forced to part with 15% of its staff (1,700 employees). By doing so AMD hopes to save $20 million over the final quarter of 2012 and $190 million over the course of 2013.

Let's just hope the recent Virgo APUs and FX-Vishera CPUs (coming next week) will win over the public. As for Radeon HD graphics cards, nothing new is in the works until the first quarter of 2013, at the very earliest.