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

[railven]

Education background is probably the least useful statistic to measure a CEO's performance. Realworld experience managing from all levels is much much more important, even if they didn't complete highschool.

True, and if you look at all the examples given - only one majored in business, not the field they are dipping their hands into.

I'm starting to think Rory was brought in to trim the fat and prep AMD for acquisition (then again I just saw the Futurama episode of the 80's Shark who was polishing Planet Express for acquisition, only thing wrong is Rory isn't raising stock value haha.)

 

[Ferzerp]

I wonder if that AMD official view is that it's the consumer's fault that they're doing poorly. We get that attitude from many posters here.

However, it's AMD's job to do two main things (way oversimplified).

1. Make a product that the consumer wants to, and does, buy.
2. Make that product at a cost where the price that the consumer is willing to pay leaves profit.

There is no "consumer responsibilities to large corporations" list. Leaving value judgments ouf of this, if AMD is failing in these two things, it will never survive.

 

[rgallant]

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

just putting it out there as another target on the dart board.

-wonder if GF has the stomach for retail , and they would gain the cap. from shifting AMD'S wafers from TSMC to their fab's?
-could they use the AMD's IP and R&D in their existing offerings?
-a mini intel .

 

[Ferzerp]

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

just putting it out there as another target on the dart board.

-wonder if GF has the stomach for retail , and they would gain the cap. from shifting AMD'S wafers from TSMC to their fab's?
-could they use the AMD's IP and R&D in their existing offerings?
-a mini intel .

Wouldn't that be odd since they came from AMD to begin with.

 

[Idontcare]

I understand that, and my suggestion was more of a "bolted on" kind of win. They could acquire AMD's GPU technology on the cheap (which *should* include their GNC compute technology) and perhaps with their better management team create a counter to the CUDA Ecosystem that creates nVidia's giant revenues. Intel is trying to compete with nVidia in this sector already, while they do that they get a little push into discrete GPUs as well.

While there is no part of me that thinks Intel would ever go for it, I'm thinking out loud of "what ifs." If the patents were put on auction (or private sale) for a fraction of their original price - I think every corporation would love for a chance at them, Intel would be no different.

Well you do have a good point there. If Intel can get the IP cheap, even if it offers less than stellar market potential then they would still probably want to buy it to prevent a competitor from acquiring it.

And once they had the IP they would certainly look to maximize their ROI from it, so they probably would keep a presence in the existing discrete GPU space at that point.

Good points you made there, I hadn't thought about it like that before :thumbsup:

 

[Ferzerp]

Well you do have a good point there. If Intel can get the IP cheap, even if it offers less than stellar market potential then they would still probably want to buy it to prevent a competitor from acquiring it.

And once they had the IP they would certainly look to maximize their ROI from it, so they probably would keep a presence in the existing discrete GPU space at that point.

Good points you made there, I hadn't thought about it like that before :thumbsup:

And considering some of the other approved aquisitions lately, I think it could actually go through. They might have to possibly approve some cushy lobbying job for the official that approves it though. (grrrrr)

 

[blastingcap]

I understand that, and my suggestion was more of a "bolted on" kind of win. They could acquire AMD's GPU technology on the cheap (which *should* include their GNC compute technology) and perhaps with their better management team create a counter to the CUDA Ecosystem that creates nVidia's giant revenues. Intel is trying to compete with nVidia in this sector already, while they do that they get a little push into discrete GPUs as well.

While there is no part of me that thinks Intel would ever go for it, I'm thinking out loud of "what ifs." If the patents were put on auction (or private sale) for a fraction of their original price - I think every corporation would love for a chance at them, Intel would be no different.

Omg, AMD GPUs at a full node shrink advantage over NV would beat NV every single year in consumer discrete video cards. It'd be tougher to build up enough infrastructure/support/marketing/relationships to compete in pro graphics. But HPC would be up for grabs....

Education background is probably the least useful statistic to measure a CEO's performance. Realworld experience managing from all levels is much much more important, even if they didn't complete highschool.

Generally speaking that is true, but for highly technical industries it helps if someone has more than an "IT" degree from some college I've never heard of. There's the myth than you can generalize practices regardless of industry, when in reality you need to understand the industry you're in. This is why oftentimes consultants brought in do more harm than good; they get paid for short-term gains but do not have long-term understanding of the industry.

 

[Siberian]

So many tech companies have failed since the 80's, this just seems like any other. It's not exactly shocking. How many people remember Cyrix? In a few years people won't remember AMD, outside of forums like this.

 

[ShintaiDK]

So many tech companies have failed since the 80's, this just seems like any other. It's not exactly shocking. How many people remember Cyrix? In a few years people won't remember AMD, outside of forums like this.

We have a winner. It seems people want to hold on to AMD for the sake of holding on to it. Aka feelings getting involved and wrong assumptions in an illusion of competition and/or devotion to a company. But thats now how business works and its destructive to think that way.

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.

 

[MisterMac]

http://www.obr-hardware.com/2012/10/amd-steamroller-delayed-to-2014.html


OBR\Charlie spew alot of stuff these days - but they seem to hit the nail on alot more in general than they normally do.


If this is true, it echos the discussion had by certain tech journo's...

14 nm Broadwell against 28 nm SteamRoller.
How on earth, in ANY segment of the x86 market is this going to give AMD a chance to survive?

 

[Ajay]

http://www.obr-hardware.com/2012/10/amd-steamroller-delayed-to-2014.html

AMD does not have enough money or engineers to complete Steamroller tape-out next year. So 28nm production at GF is bad, all based APU/CPUs on the architecture Steamroller is postponed to 2014. Next year will see the only Trinity 2.0 and Vishera. Tragedy.

What the heck? Kaveri needs to tape out this year to be available next year, if it was meant to tape out in 2013, then in all likelihood it was meant for 2014 to begin with (which is still awful for AMD).

We need more info here, and we'll probably have to wait for the con-call mid month, or AMD's executive presentation at the end of the month.

 

[pelov]

14 nm Broadwell against 28 nm SteamRoller.
How on earth, in ANY segment of the x86 market is this going to give AMD a chance to survive?

If that's true, they won't. I've already got a death watch thread going 😛
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2276314

I'd like to see them pull through, but if the tape out delay rumors are indeed fact, they're as good as dead.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/137796-amd-executives-have-forgotten-how-to-run-a-company

Unfortunately for them, I don't think anyone wants to bother with x86 anymore due to the declining of PC sales and the Intel juggernaut, so any hope of an acquisition will come from their graphics department.

 

[ViRGE]

http://www.obr-hardware.com/2012/10/amd-steamroller-delayed-to-2014.html


OBR\Charlie spew alot of stuff these days - but they seem to hit the nail on alot more in general than they normally do.


If this is true, it echos the discussion had by certain tech journo's...

14 nm Broadwell against 28 nm SteamRoller.
How on earth, in ANY segment of the x86 market is this going to give AMD a chance to survive?

Whenever we're talking about OBR, it's always good to remember that this is the guy who put up a ton of useless info about BD shortly before its release. Much like Charlie seems to have an axe to grind with NVIDIA, OBR appears to have an axe to grind with AMD, so be sure to use copious amounts of salt.

 

[nyker96]

just sad.

 

[blastingcap]

http://www.obr-hardware.com/2012/10/amd-steamroller-delayed-to-2014.html


OBR\Charlie spew alot of stuff these days - but they seem to hit the nail on alot more in general than they normally do.


If this is true, it echos the discussion had by certain tech journo's...

14 nm Broadwell against 28 nm SteamRoller.
How on earth, in ANY segment of the x86 market is this going to give AMD a chance to survive?

If true, Intel will likely price Broadwell at the max the market will bear without losing much in sales, thus maximizing their profits and giving AMD a little breathing room to survive if it's still alive at that point. You seem to be under the mistaken impression that Intel is trying to kill AMD. Nothing could be further from the truth; Intel wants a weak competitor to stick around so as to deflect DOJ Anti-Trust/EU Anti-Trust attention. I mean, honestly, if Intel wanted AMD dead, AMD would be dead by now. At any point in the last several years, Intel had the capability to bankrupt AMD, but it did not. That's because Intel wants to make money. That is the whole point of the corporate form: make money for shareholders. Intel has bigger fish to fry these days, anyway, with ARM... is Intel even aware of AMD's existence anymore?

 

[georgec84]

FU AMD. You screwed up big time.

 

[Abwx]

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

just putting it out there as another target on the dart board.

-could they use the AMD's IP and R&D in their existing offerings?

If one buy AMD he wont no more benefit from the agreement
signed with Intel so it can only be the other way around ,
that is , that AMD buy GF , at least officialy , for the rest ,
AMD will pay GF stock holders with the majority of the
actualised stocks , wich would technicaly being GF buying
AMD but legaly it would be the contrary.....

 

[Keysplayr]

If one buy AMD he wont no more benefit from the agreement
signed with Intel so it can only be the other way around ,
that is , that AMD buy GF , at least officialy , for the rest ,
AMD will pay GF stock holders with the majority of the
actualised stocks , wich would technicaly being GF buying
AMD but legaly it would be the contrary.....

This post hurt my head.

 

[JumpingJack]

This post hurt my head.

I concur, I mean holy cow. I read it 5 times and still do not understand what he said.

 

[pm]

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

I can speak from a perspective of personal experience since I was present in an HP campus when I watched HP layoff thousands about 8 years ago (ish), and, I had to personally lay someone off once - who ironically is over at AMD where he's been pretty happy, I think (I hope). Regardless, I am not sure that I'd say that it takes balls. I have balls, but they weren't involved in that unfortunate event that my employee and I went through. And besides, whether it's a consultant or the CEO, does it really matter to the people involved where the buck really stops? They are out of a job, they have to say goodbye to their co-workers who are (usually) friends, and they have to set out into an uncertain future. I don't think they really care whether it's the CEO or a consultant who set them on that course.

For layoffs, I prefer they start with voluntary severance packages and pay off the ones who want to leave before they start on the ones who are happy to stay. Then do meritocracy based layoffs based on the ones who - through bad luck or poor work skills - underperformed. And move up from there. Layoffs suck though whomever is in charge and has to make the decision.

As far as the layoffs at AMD, I wish them the best possible. About the only nice thing is that electrical engineers can usually find another job fairly quickly... if they are willing to move.

 

[Abwx]

I concur, I mean holy cow. I read it 5 times and still do not understand what he said.

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....

 

[Keysplayr]

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....

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?

 

[Idontcare]

Whenever we're talking about OBR, it's always good to remember that this is the guy who put up a ton of useless info about BD shortly before its release. Much like Charlie seems to have an axe to grind with NVIDIA, OBR appears to have an axe to grind with AMD, so be sure to use copious amounts of salt.

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.

 

[Idontcare]

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....

GloFo is losing money. AMD owning GLoFo would not help resolve AMD's ongoing negative cashflow problems, it would only worsen them.

Remember there was a reason why AMD spun-off their fabs to form GloFo in the first place, and it wasn't about unlocking shareholder value 😉

 

[blastingcap]

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.

+1