Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[bobs10]

Eric Kim

http://business.goldsea.com/Kime/kime.html

It's becoming more and more obvious that Otellini is no Barrett. While that isn't much of a compliment, it's a definite improvement for INTC. It's beginning to look like Otellini took a hard look at GE and liked what he saw. The question is can he pull it off? There is a long ways to go from where INTC is now to being a GE with complete product lines in other businesses.

One of the reasons I started getting out of INTC back in 98 was because Barrett was throwing money at the diversification wall, hoping something would stick. I think Otelline is definitely on the right path with platformization, which seems much more thought out compared to what Barrett did. Still this is not something that is going to happen overnight and is going to tug INTC in directions it has never ventured into in the past. Not an easy thing for a company of INTC’s size and manufacturing oriented history to accomplish.

The good news for AMD fans is that while INTC may succeed in transforming itself, there is and will be so much demand for smart silicon over the next few years that AMD should do very well no matter what INTC does. In case anyone hasn't noticed we're just now entering another period of high demand for smart silicon. This period could dwarf previous expansions.