AMD has hired JPMorgan to "explore options"

[spaceman]

Don't worry, I haven't EVER bought an AMD chip in all my years from 486DX to i7-2700k so I averaged that out in the wash.

good job
now well only have intel
as long as x86 stays relevant that is

 

[Medu]

Not good.I for one do not want to see Intel without a competitor.

AMD aren't a true competitor to Intel and haven't been for a number of years. ARM, and it's partners, are what is pushing Intel to stay competitive.

AMD will be bought out, that is fairly clear and has been for a while now. There are a number of tech companies that could buy them with less than a 1/4 years profit.
Qualcomm would be a good match IMO.

 

[mrmt]

AMD will be bought out, that is fairly clear and has been for a while now. There are a number of tech companies that could buy them with less than a 1/4 years profit.
Qualcomm would be a good match IMO.

What's the point of buying out AMD?

Their balance sheet is crap, as they have a pile of debt and no other interesting asset to counter-balance that. They have no fabs, they have only testing and packaging sites that aren't something overly complex. They have not any high growth division and even those that are making money it isn't anything big.

Personnel isn't attractive either. Their engineering team, if there is anyone there worth the money, can be hired any time, and their management team is a no-go, as no sane person would want to share management with that bunch of incompetent/amateurs.

The only interesting things is their patent portfolio, which can be bought without the bad luggage I described earlier.

 

[SlowSpyder]

They got beat by NVIDIA's smaller midrange chip. That may be even wose than Bulldozer.

Define "beat".

 

[frozentundra123456]

good job
now well only have intel
as long as x86 stays relevant that is

I dont understand this buying an inferior product to support a particular company. In the days of the P4 I bought AMD. Now since I dont do any of the specific multithreaded apps is which AMD is competitive, I go intel all the way.

I dont really think it encourages progress to reward an inferior product, actually quite the opposite.

 

[Arzachel]

Define "beat".

Better yet, define "midrange chip".

 

[Idontcare]

I dont understand this buying an inferior product to support a particular company. In the days of the P4 I bought AMD. Now since I dont do any of the specific multithreaded apps is which AMD is competitive, I go intel all the way.

I dont really think it encourages progress to reward an inferior product, actually quite the opposite.

It is very much a "moral hazaard" conundrum.

If the problem with AMD is AMD's management/decision makers then that problem will never be addressed if the markets (shareholders and consumers) do not vote a measure of "no confidence" with their wallets.

By subsidizing poor decision making and poor project management, an economic crutch is put in place which props up those who ought to be held accountable if real change is to occur within the company going forward.

AMD squandered a lot of money and opportunity on frivolous decisions made by people who should have never been elevated to a position of making critical decisions in the first place. (Ruiz comes to mind)

Blowing $5.4B on ATI. Intentionally slowing down 65nm process development and phenom development so they could milk customers even longer on dated 90nm Athlon X2 parts, etc.

AMD the business got exactly what it deserved, AMD's employees definitely deserved better though. Sanders and the BoD set them up for failure by putting Ruiz into the CEO slot.

In the end, when history looks back on AMD, Ruiz will be viewed as THE fatal mistake IMO.

 

[mrmt]

Blowing $5.4B on ATI. Intentionally slowing down 65nm process development and phenom development so they could milk customers even longer on dated 90nm Athlon X2 parts, etc.

Did they really do that? That's too dumb, even for AMD standards. What happened back then? AMD saw Prescott and thought that they didn't have to do anything?

 

[Vesku]

Yes AMD did do that, and it was all thanks to Ruiz. Perfect example of the kind of person who shouldn't run an engineering based firm. He publicly stated they could slow down development because their products were that much better than Intel's at the time.

IMO, ignoring Ruiz' ridiculous statements and looking at his actions he was a typical company milking CEO. Cut development so he could bump up perceived performance in the short term with the goal to bump share price. ATI purchase was probably to trigger his ability to sell stock options.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-a...n-Insider-Trading-Scandal-WSJ-Reports-235282/

Dirk may also deserve some of the blame for AMD's current position depending on exactly how involved he was in the Bulldozer project and general shotgun approach to product development.

 

[CHADBOGA]

Did they really do that? That's too dumb, even for AMD standards. What happened back then? AMD saw Prescott and thought that they didn't have to do anything?

Yes AMD did do that, and it was all thanks to Ruiz. Perfect example of the kind of person who shouldn't run an engineering based firm. He publicly stated they could slow down development because their products were that much better than Intel's at the time.

You know I would be very skeptical about taking any public statement made by Hector Ruiz, on face value.

More likely their 65nm process was a disaster and rather than admit that, Ruiz wanted to pretend they had everything under control and came up with that load of nonsense.

 

[Vesku]

Really don't think that was it Chadboga, since he was explaining why they were REDUCING SPENDING in that area and not just excusing timelines.

 

[Idontcare]

Did they really do that? That's too dumb, even for AMD standards. What happened back then? AMD saw Prescott and thought that they didn't have to do anything?

Yep. They saw prescott and assumed cedar mill, tejas and nehalem (a netburst codename at the time) would be more of the same.

So both Ruiz and Dirk went on record in some analyst meeting as stating they were intentionally reducing 65nm-related R&D and pulling back on both the process development timeline as well as the release timeline for Barcelona/Phenom. Extending 90nm.

That is the problem with hubris, when ego and arrogance combine with confidence from recent success people actually start to believe they can say/do the absurd and no one will think anything of it.

That is how you end up with a CEO illegally giving away insider information to hedge fund managers and so forth, they actually think they are above it all.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Did they really do that? That's too dumb, even for AMD standards. What happened back then? AMD saw Prescott and thought that they didn't have to do anything?

Talking about dumb and AMDs standards:
http://shintai.ambition.cz/amd.pdf

Showed the attitude back then. And it never changed since.

 

[CHADBOGA]

Really don't think that was it Chadboga, since he was explaining why they were REDUCING SPENDING in that area and not just excusing timelines.

Maybe they thought they needed more time, rather than simply more resources to fix their 65nm process.

After all, you can't get a baby in a month, even if you have 9 women on hand.

Yep. They saw prescott and assumed cedar mill, tejas and nehalem (a netburst codename at the time) would be more of the same.

So both Ruiz and Dirk went on record in some analyst meeting as stating they were intentionally reducing 65nm-related R&D and pulling back on both the process development timeline as well as the release timeline for Barcelona/Phenom.

How do you pull back on the timeline for a product that you then release late anyway, and have it filled with bugs? D:

 

[nehalem256]

You know I would be very skeptical about taking any public statement made by Hector Ruiz, on face value.

More likely their 65nm process was a disaster and rather than admit that, Ruiz wanted to pretend they had everything under control and came up with that load of nonsense.

Possible. Considering that 65nm ended up scaling lower than 90nm. Or its possible 65nm ended up a disaster due to lack of proper investment.

How do you pull back on the timeline for a product that you then release late anyway, and have it filled with bugs? D:

Well what do you think happens if you reduce investment in a project?

 

[Genx87]

Here is AMD's official response to the Register:

Soon after we clicked Publish on this story, we received a comment from an AMD spokesman. "AMD's board and management believe that the strategy the company is currently pursuing to drive long-term growth by leveraging AMD's highly-differentiated technology assets is the right approach to enhance shareholder value," he wrote. "AMD is not actively pursuing a sale of the company or significant assets at this time."

All this means is they havent formulated the correct press release to announce they are exploring options to parse out the company or sell it outright.

 

[jumpncrash]

I am sad at this turn of events and hope they can find a way out. I've been a huge fanboy for years. I already felt bad about ordering an intel system, but now this just makes it worse Oh well, we'll see what happens

 

[Idontcare]

Question:

How do you pull back on the timeline for a product that you then release late anyway, and have it filled with bugs? D:

Answer: http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4027099/As-Ruiz-ascends-Sanders-steps-down---but-not-out

 

[mrmt]

So both Ruiz and Dirk went on record in some analyst meeting as stating they were intentionally reducing 65nm-related R&D and pulling back on both the process development timeline as well as the release timeline for Barcelona/Phenom

I was aware they had problems with their joint venture with UMC, but I wasn't aware of that they didn't invest on purpose on 65nm and Barcelona. How can a CPU company executive delay a roadmap and break momentum to save cash and then later pay in cash a GPU company?

I remember at the time rumors that AMD first tried to merge with Nvidia but failed, supposedly because of JHH arrogance. I wonder how could JHH be more arrogant than Hector & Co. When faced with that kind of arrogant executive JHH should have given a price out of reach of AMD pockets, then AMD went to ATI, management had the same impression and decided they would not get along with such a pricks and then put another outrageous price on the table, unfortunately one AMD could barely afford. Surprisingly, Hector took the bait and cashed out ATI investors.

Now I must agree with you, Hector was criminally damaging to AMD, far more than Rory "execution" Read can ever be.

 

[moonbogg]

So its not that people don't want PCs, its just that they would rather spend their money on mobile garbage instead? What is this attraction to mobile garbage all about anyway? I can't help but see the entire mobile world as containing underpowered, incapable rehash products that are good for GPS and web browsing and not much else. If mobile wasn't so strong, I bet AMD would have had a much better chance. This blows. Mid range Intel chips are going to cost $500.00, but then again if people would rather spend that $500.00 on an ipad, then maybe the mobile market itself will be what keeps PC related product prices in check.

 

[Dribble]

So its not that people don't want PCs, its just that they would rather spend their money on mobile garbage instead? What is this attraction to mobile garbage all about anyway? I can't help but see the entire mobile world as containing underpowered, incapable rehash products that are good for GPS and web browsing and not much else. If mobile wasn't so strong, I bet AMD would have had a much better chance. This blows. Mid range Intel chips are going to cost $500.00, but then again if people would rather spend that $500.00 on an ipad, then maybe the mobile market itself will be what keeps PC related product prices in check.

Can't blame the market for not doing what you want it too, "if mobile wasn't so strong" - if AMD's management had realised what was going to happen in mobile they would have been in a position to take advantage of it. They just stuck their heads in the sand and hoped the x86 gravy train would last forever. For as long as anyone can remember they have completely failed to take any initiative, just carry on in whatever direction they are going until something bad happens, then react with too little too late.

 

[MarkLuvsCS]

ATi is wortless. AMD is losing ground to nVidia with GCN:
Lost the notebook market (accelerate thx to Llano and Trinity), needs much lower prices for the desktop chips, no market share in the workstation and server.

I don't think anybody want to go against nVidia and their IP portfolio.

AMD's biggest problem with the notebook market is their slow software development. Enduro is almost ready to compete as a capable power solution, and they're working on the mobility drivers to ensure faster upgrade paths than what OEMs have been capable of producing.

Their iGPU solutions with Llano and Trinity are a good fit for the low end market but their OEM partners need to ensure they don't severely gimp their design with single channel bandwidth murdering any reasonable FPS.

AMD's desktop GPUs are extremely competitively priced right now, and definitely capable. I recently picked up a GTX 670 after much debate with the 7950/7970's sheer cost. I know I'm paying slightly more $/perf, but I was happy to trade that slight cost difference for CUDA.

Their professional cards are definitely a bit behind for software solutions, but as more programs switch towards OpenCL it should be a bit easier for AMD. Their HPC cards will take refinement and time to erode nvidias firm hold on the HPC crowd. nvidia is already well established and has maintained a strong focus on GPGPU since fermis inception.

I for one look forward to continued competition between AMD and nvidia. It provides well priced and performanced diversity for our needs.

 

[Genx87]

So its not that people don't want PCs, its just that they would rather spend their money on mobile garbage instead? What is this attraction to mobile garbage all about anyway? I can't help but see the entire mobile world as containing underpowered, incapable rehash products that are good for GPS and web browsing and not much else. If mobile wasn't so strong, I bet AMD would have had a much better chance. This blows. Mid range Intel chips are going to cost $500.00, but then again if people would rather spend that $500.00 on an ipad, then maybe the mobile market itself will be what keeps PC related product prices in check.

Email, entertainment(movies, music, games), and making phone calls. The idea we need I5s in our computers is silly. If I didnt game my need for a PC would be zero. Honestly, I can browse just fine on my 10 inch tablet. I watch movies on it all the time, can do email, and I take it to the Gym and watch movies or shows while on the machine. I can also do a lot of work on my phone.

Intel midrange chips wont cost 500 bucks if AMD goes away. If they did, then the move to tablets\laptops powered by ARM would be that much faster. The market shifted. Intel isnt fighting AMD anymore, they are fighting ARM.

 

[Vesku]

Can't blame the market for not doing what you want it too, "if mobile wasn't so strong" - if AMD's management had realised what was going to happen in mobile they would have been in a position to take advantage of it. They just stuck their heads in the sand and hoped the x86 gravy train would last forever. For as long as anyone can remember they have completely failed to take any initiative, just carry on in whatever direction they are going until something bad happens, then react with too little too late.

They did realize it hence the talk of APUs and the rather decent bobcat netbook CPU. They just didn't spend nearly as much time and money on it as they did talking about it, the follow up has been lacking. I can't imagine how messed up AMD must be on the inside to be less focused than their giant competitor. Not to mention they have never seemed to actually get the better OEM buy in that was one of the cited reasons the BoD brought in Ruiz (pretty prominent in the transition PR Idontcare linked). The Trinity laptop chips are quite nice but the selection seems even less diverse than Llano.

Edit: The "as long as anyone can remember" is pretty much everything after Sanders roadmap played out. His general plan ran through Athlon 64 x2 or so. The BoD should have begged Jerry for a back of the napkin plan for them to operate off of circa 2004-2005. ;p

 

[moonbogg]

If I didnt game my need for a PC would be zero.

Really? You don't work on a PC? I duno, my PC is the central hub of my existence (not really, but kinda). I mean, its what I plug any mobile stuff into for charging and data transfer, including cameras. I use it for excel, photoshop, solidworks, games, email, browsing, finding jobs sometimes, social networking and other things for sure. Some of these things can be done with a mobile device, but the PC can do them all and offers an insane ammount of flexibility. Having a keyboard, mouse and large monitor combined with a powerful machine with lots of storage space makes for a proper command and control center for my whole life. How I could ever do away with that in any capacity is beyond me. I will never be able to trade that for a mobile device, complete with fingers tripping over eachother trying to function on a tiny, virtual keyboard etc.