Whoa whoa whoa. The misfortunes of AMD happened long before the ATI acquisition. The money issues go way deeper than ATI itself. AMD could have paid the same amount and would have been just fine, but there was a corporate culture of over-spending and embezzlement MANY YEARS prior to that, and no proper investments into R+D and technological advancements. Meanwhile, Ruiz was stuffing his pockets with AMDs cash and spent outrageous amounts of money on FABs that AMD didn't need, while not investing properly into R+D. I'm sorry to say without R+D a silicon company cannot survive.
**Despite what anyone here says, AMD did not need FABs. They did not need them then, did not need them ever.
So then what happened? Remember AMD didn't invest properly into R+D and simply thought that they could maintain status quo with the Athlon forever. Instead, their outright arrogance cost them the desktop market, because they didn't have an answer to the Conroe in 2006. **This is when the beginning of AMD's downfall became apparent. When Conroe was released. All because of their mis-spending, lack of corporate leadership, and lack of R+D investments.
Their problems began LONG before the ATI acquisition. Because of Ruiz and the lack of proper corporate management. Trust me.