Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[sgolds]

DARBES, are you saying that AMD's finances were stronger on the date they released the Athlon, vs. the date they released Opteron? I seem to remember that they were very heavily in debt then, and losing lots of money. Now, I know that they are (once again) heavily in debt and posting losses, but I remember the situation as being more dire at that time.

OK, the Athlon was introduced in May, 1999. I don't have quarterly reports from then. For 1999 they had operating losses of 321M on sales of 2.858B, but sold Vantis and made up a lot of the money. They were carrying a debt of 911M. This include 7 months of selling Athlons, which was significantly contributing to the bottom line in 4th quarter.

Current liabilities are 1270M, about 1/3 more than the end of 1999. Of course, we don't have the rest of the years results to add into the mix - these numbers are after Q1, before any Hammer was released and with flash just starting to pick up. I would expect some of that debt to be repayed by the end of the year, and that would bring us in line with the 1999 annual report.

I guess you are right. AMD's financial condition right now is very similar to their condition when Athlon was release.

Fascinating. Hopefully the K8 architecture will break the cycle!