[allthingsd.com] AMD getting ready for another round of Layoffs

[NickelPlate]

Read, what a coward. No balls to fire the people himself He will then "blame" the consultants. But then thats pretty much standard nowadays.

I will never understand why anyone thinks money spent on consultants will actually lead to something useful. Mostly they don't understand your business and worse think they actually do. Probably the consultants that teach at manager schools teach it's a good idea or so.

Anyway just makes me think of this again:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle

/rant

Yeah I feel the same way. If all these high priced business consultants are so great at what they do, why are they consulting and not actually running a business that makes stuff?

 

[Abwx]

By where?

And I don't understand. You think AMD should buy back Global Foundries? Or that Global Foundries should buy AMD? And how does one pay with, or accept payment of, "actualized" stock. Whatever that is?

That s a technical operation where ATIC , the owner of GF , agree to
sell GF to AMD and then being paid with the acualized stock.

Lets admit that AMD and GF are worth 5bn each;
Atic sell GF for 5bn and is payed by receiving 50% of the
merging , wich is valued at 10bn.

At the current AMD stock price they may get even more than
50% since GF capitalisation is probably bigger than AMDs.

 

[CHADBOGA]

Yet , there s not a single post by there that i have trouble understanding ,
including Nemesis obscure rants.

Here an explanation.

According to the agreement signed with intel , any company that buy AMD
will lose the benefit of the tech sharing agreement.

To circumvate this , AMD can buy GF and pay with the actualized stock ,
so legaly AMD would buy GF but technicaly it s GF buying AMD....

Ahhh the ol' tie two rocks together and maybe they will float in water trick.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Yeah I feel the same way. If all these high priced business consultants are so great at what they do, why are they consulting and not actually running a business that makes stuff?

because being a consultant pays a lot more.

 

[Idontcare]

Yeah I feel the same way. If all these high priced business consultants are so great at what they do, why are they consulting and not actually running a business that makes stuff?

Consulting is a business.

I was a consultant for a while and there was a good reason why it made sense for me to be one, just as there was a good reason why it made sense for my customers to hire me as a consultant versus hiring me as a full-time employee.

In the specific situation that AMD is in, the consultant is getting paid to be the bad cop to internal managements good cop persona. Internal management has no choice but to let people go, even the good people, because they have a cash crunch coming and they must take drastic action to avoid catastrophe.

But internal management also has to retain confidence in the eyes and minds of the employees that aren't being let go. It is morale triage, attempting to keep the absolute worse from happening.

Consultants in this situation provide two benefits - limited liability (reduces claims of biased or prejudicial layoff selections) and filling in the role of the bad cop.

Just look at the response within this thread to the very concept of an external consultant being involved in providing guidance for the layoffs. People love to hate, and they just need a sacrificial lamb to vent that rage towards.

Downsizing consultants willingly let themselves become the scapegoats so that management can avoid taking that blunt force full salvo of anger and hurt from the employees that don't get let go - management needs them to still take direction and rally themselves to come in to work and actually get the work done.

The charade of the downsizing consultant fulfills the morale triage that is needed internally with employees, and the association of making downsizing decisions on the basis of external benchmarking and guidance provided by consultants fulfills the morale triage that is needed externally with shareholders and creditors who also need to have confidence that management is doing what it is doing because it needs to and not because it has no idea what it is doing.

 

[bononos]

........
The charade of the downsizing consultant fulfills the morale triage that is needed internally with employees, and the association of making downsizing decisions on the basis of external benchmarking and guidance provided by consultants fulfills the morale triage that is needed externally with shareholders and creditors who also need to have confidence that management is doing what it is doing because it needs to and not because it has no idea what it is doing.

Charade? heheh reminds of the American beauty scene.
Sometimes external consultants are needed for objectivity (or the gloss of one) to make big rifs (like the 30% headcount reduction at AMD), given that possibly the management cannot be totally relied upon for the process otherwise they wouldn't have been in the position in the first place. Consultants might have to root out the goldbricking deadwood that a corp might have picked up during the good times.

 

[beginner99]

because being a consultant pays a lot more.

But you also work a lot more and if you break it down to an hourly rate the difference is smaller than at first glance (but of course it is still more).

But then I'm lazy. I prefer a lower salary (also per hour) than having to work 60 hrs a week. It's a trade-off. I mean what to you do with all the money when you are always working? Can't even enjoy it.

 

[blastingcap]

Charade? heheh reminds of the American beauty scene.
Sometimes external consultants are needed for objectivity (or the gloss of one) to make big rifs (like the 30% headcount reduction at AMD), given that possibly the management cannot be totally relied upon for the process otherwise they wouldn't have been in the position in the first place. Consultants might have to root out the goldbricking deadwood that a corp might have picked up during the good times.

Have you seen Up In The Air (movie starring George Clooney)?

 

[MisterMac]

Not just useless, he admitted to intentionally creating and publishing false benchmarks and false "internal source" infos regarding the behind-the-scene realities (which was all fabricated by him) on bulldozer before release.

I mean that is the kind of person you not only do not trust, you actively avoid them because you know they are a scammer by nature.

I don't think even on his worst day that Charlie ever intentionally fabricated bad news about NV, or any other company. He just takes the ball and runs with it, but the ball itself is someone elses creation usually.

He did with bulldozer - but his first leaked info was correct long before everyone else starting posting certian leaks.
he's a massive "underground troll" version of Charlie, yes.
Altho he's had several more "hits" than misses lately.

Secondly the rumor in question is being etho'ed around several tech journo's.

Also to the dude who said "intel wants amd" - of course they want AMD alive.

What we're discussing now is - they simply can't neither artificially thru extra string or not pushing OEMs so hard.
Hence the gloomy nature - Intel even if it wants to cannot keep AMD alive.

 

[pelov]

What we're discussing now is - they simply can't neither artificially thru extra string or not pushing OEMs so hard.
Hence the gloomy nature - Intel even if it wants to cannot keep AMD alive.

Despite last year's success, Intel ain't doing too well either. Their stock is down over 20% since early Q2 and it's certainly going to drop even further over Q4 and Q1 '13. Unless Win8 x86 turns into the most magical thing ever and every analyst, reviewer and user who hates it with a passion has a sudden change of heart, Intel won't be doing too well.

 

[MisterMac]

Despite last year's success, Intel ain't doing too well either. Their stock is down over 20% since early Q2 and it's certainly going to drop even further over Q4 and Q1 '13. Unless Win8 x86 turns into the most magical thing ever and every analyst, reviewer and user who hates it with a passion has a sudden change of heart, Intel won't be doing too well.

Not gonna argue that - they're gonna have to pull more white rabbits than they currently have to sustain they're dividends and investor happiness.

..BUT - they're not exactly in a "bad" position even comparing to some of the ARM licencee's imho.

 

[bononos]

Have you seen Up In The Air (movie starring George Clooney)?

No, only the trailer.

 

[Abwx]

Ahhh the ol' tie two rocks together and maybe they will float in water trick.

You are clueless about GF.

It is owned by ATIC wich has almost unlimited cash at its disposal...

 

[Keysplayr]

You are clueless about GF.

It is owned by ATIC wich has almost unlimited cash at its disposal...

I doubt that. Also I'm looking at ATIC's portfolio and one of it's holdings looks far more interesting than Global Foundries. Calxeda.
http://www.atic.ae/portfolio/Calxeda/4

GF has it's own share of problems. You can throw 50 billion at a problem, but if you don't use that 50 billion to acquire the right people problem solvers/innovators, then yes, you are a very sinkable rock.

 

[Olikan]

In the shrinking discrete GPU market, there aint room for 2 players in the long run. Might not even be room for 1. In an ever more expensive CPU world there aint room for more players either in the endgame due to costs.

actually, i have the same feeling...
discrete gpu market is shrinking... haswell will hurt the laptop market big time...
i don't really see much future for nvidia too

 

[Abwx]

I doubt that. Also I'm looking at ATIC's portfolio and one of it's holdings looks far more interesting than Global Foundries. Calxeda.
http://www.atic.ae/portfolio/Calxeda/4

GF has it's own share of problems. You can throw 50 billion at a problem, but if you don't use that 50 billion to acquire the right people problem solvers/innovators, then yes, you are a very sinkable rock.

Yet it seems that GF is their most valuable investment ,
but it s not all to cram wafers , one has to find customers ,
and in a highly competitive environment , owning a CPU
designer or whatever use lots of silicon is an advantage
when it comes to production variation flattenings.

 

[Lonbjerg]

actually, i have the same feeling...
discrete gpu market is shrinking... haswell will hurt the laptop market big time...
i don't really see much future for nvidia too

HPC...same market Intel is looking at with Xeon Phi...that market is growing.

 

[sontin]

actually, i have the same feeling...
discrete gpu market is shrinking... haswell will hurt the laptop market big time...
i don't really see much future for nvidia too

And the earth is flat.

The market is not shrinking.

 

[Olikan]

I doubt that. Also I'm looking at ATIC's portfolio and one of it's holdings looks far more interesting than Global Foundries. Calxeda.
http://www.atic.ae/portfolio/Calxeda/4

5-watts server

And the earth is flat.

The market is not shrinking.

do you think that nvidia can compete with intel?

 

[Lonbjerg]

5-watts server


do you think that nvidia can compete with intel?

Does NVIDIA make a better GPU than Intel?

 

[Olikan]

Does NVIDIA make a better GPU than Intel?

right now? yes... (arguably, not against xeon phi ) but that's not my point...

 

[Nemesis 1]

As I see it an announcement like this . Does harm to Amd in the area of OEMs and their future plans. AMDs future is in doubt so . oems are less likely to plan products around a companies product if they preceive that companies future is in doubt , Thats as I see the presnt situation. as far as this news is concerned

 

[Lonbjerg]

right now? yes... (arguably, not against xeon phi ) but that's not my point...

Actually it is.
NVIDIA is out-competing Intel in the discrete GPU market..and in the GPGPU market.

What was your question again?

 

[MisterMac]

right now? yes... (arguably, not against xeon phi ) but that's not my point...

Granted we're all biased atm by all the news about AMD and intel's flawless execution past 6-7 years.


The question is - can anyone compete against Intel?
When will Intel make another p4?


Does Samsung have enough power to advance smaller nodes ?
Does IBM?

Is there a market for the foundry situation we have currently?


It's an exciting time - but even as a long time intel buyer i'm kinda worried this is going bad for the consumer very fast.
It takes time to change direction and turn the boat in the semiconductor industry.

Very long time.

 

[ShintaiDK]

do you think that nvidia can compete with intel?

I think it depends on the following:

1. When will Intel/AMD add memory ondie to CPUs for the GPU part to further accelerarte the catchup from below vs discrete GPUs.

2. When will discrete cards fall enough in volume that it aint profitable due to increased costs of the design. Not to mention further R&D benefits to the iGPU due to volume compared to discrete.

In short I would say no, they cant compete in the long run.