Guess we heard right last night!!
AMD losses widen as Hammer launch is put back
Blood-letting likely
By Paul Hales: Thursday 17 October 2002, 09:49
AMD ANNOUNCED A NET LOSS of $254 million for its third quarter last night, revealing that sales revenue for the period was down by 34 per cent on last year’s Q3, dropping to $508 million.
In a conference call to explain the financials, the company also revealed that the launch of its Hammer processors will be put back.
AMD said it had "changed its roadmap schedule" for the Hammer processors. The Sledgehammer-core Opteron will be released in the first half of 2003 for the server markets. And, while the Barton-core Athlon XP is now expected in the first quarter of 2003, the Clawhammer-core desktop processor will not be released until the second half of 2003, the company confessed.
While the losses were largely expected, broadly in line with warnings the company had issued earlier, the confessions relating to the schedule for the launch of its Hammer processors were more startling - if much discussed over recent months.
The losses were slightly worse that financial analysts were expecting.
The company said it would take "aggressive actions" in the fourth quarter to ensure breakeven. In statement, chief financial officer Robert J. Rivet, said the company was to lower its corporate breakeven point. "We will begin to implement additional and aggressive actions in the fourth quarter that are expected to significantly reduce our quarterly breakeven point beginning in the first quarter of 2003."
"Aggressive actions" generally means cutting jobs, an eventuality AMD neither confirmed nor rejected.
The company also discussed the figures for the full nine-month fiscal period of 2002, stating that, overall, sales were down on the comparable period in 2001, by 32 per cent. The net loss during the nine-month period amounted to some $448,272,000 or $1.31 per share. µ
