AMD Chief Targets Market Share Gains
Wednesday September 1, 1:48 PM EDT By Daniel Sorid
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Chief Executive Hector Ruiz on Wednesday laid out a plan to break what he called the monopolistic grip on the microprocessor industry by Intel Corp., saying he wanted a "true duopoly" with its arch-rival within five years. AMD, he said, currently accounts for less than 10 percent of the dollars spent on microprocessors, but would ratchet that share up to 25 percent or more by both differentiated product development and a more cost-efficient internal organization. "We think over a period of three to five years we can accomplish a solid position in a true duopoly as opposed to a monopoly," Ruiz said in a telephone interview with Reuters. "In a true duopoly, you have to have 25-percent-plus in the market."
Ruiz's comments come a day ahead of a widely anticipated business update by Intel, the world's largest chip maker. Many analysts expect Intel to trim its revenue forecast by as much as $100 million for the third quarter amid a weaker and delayed back-to-school spending rush. For its own part, AMD has had a very slow July and August as it expected, Ruiz said, and is counting on a strong September to meet its quarterly outlook. He said he had not seen any data "one way or the other" to gauge the strength of back-to-school demand.
"The third quarter has always been and continues to be a very, very difficult quarter," Ruiz said. "July is bad in America because everybody's taking their kids to Disneyland. August is dead in Europe, literally nothing in Europe for the whole month of August."
"So far the third quarter is playing out as it always has, pretty slow in July and August," he added. "We are looking forward to a strong September." Shares of AMD were up 19 cents, or 1.7 percent, at $11.62 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
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