Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[rupert]

bobs10: It seems to me that much of the "market's" reservations about AMD relate to flash. The overhanging fear is that if demand falls (and there seems to be a belief that a fall is a cylical inevitability) the decline in AMD's profitability could be savage and sudden. A corollary fear is that Intel might start a price war in flash to regain market share and this would reduce AMD's margins.

These fears are revived from time to time when Samsung or one of the other big NAND suppliers announce price cuts or increased capacity. People seem not to distinguish too clearly between NAND and NOR.

Any suggestions that world economic recovery is faltering also revives the fears.

AMD's counter to this is to point to the increasing number of products that require flash. In addition, it talks about MirrorBit as being competitive with some NAND as well as bringing its own margin improvements even in traditonal NOR markets. All of this, it says, will improve profitability in the near term and prevent a return to losses even in future cyclical downturns.

But the "market" does not fully understand MirrorBit and because of this does not trust AMD's projections.

It is another case of wait and see.