Valleywag: Amd

AMD to sack 3.2 percent of its workforce

Paul Boutin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:36:19 PST

I hate it when companies leak to the New York Times before they leak to me. AMD will lay off nearly 500 employees. But as Ashlee Vance notes, that leaves 14,960 more to lay off next quarter.

Drew Prairie, a company spokesman, said the cuts would be spread across a variety of departments and regions.

A.M.D., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is in the process of splitting into two businesses. It plans to have the majority of workers stay on at A.M.D. to handle processor designs, while roughly 3,000 employees will head to a new manufacturing operation jointly owned by A.M.D. and investors backed by the Abu Dhabi government.

The new entity – tentatively called the Foundry Company – will be based somewhere in Silicon Valley and should begin operations early next year.

The 10 richest tech companies

Owen Thomas — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:00:00 PDT

Where's the debt crisis in Silicon Valley? The knock-on effects are all too real, but frozen credit markets have had little direct effect on business operations, aside from possibly scotching the debt-fueled sales of Alltel and Nextel. That's because technology companies are run by paranoid sorts who like to keep large cash reserves, in case some upstart renders their market obsolete. In good times, activist shareholders whinged about their parsimonious habits, but the cash hoarders are now sitting pretty — and could be set for acquisition binges.

One company which listened, to its detriment, to shareholders was Microsoft. When Bill Gates ran the software company, he liked to keep a year's worth of expenses on hand, in case things went awry. Microsoft is no longer quite so stingy with its cash; it dribbles some out in dividends, and gave shareholders a $32 billion payout a few years back. Good thing it didn't shell out $44 billion for Yahoo; that deal would have left it cash-poor and debt-ridden, at exactly the wrong time. Even so, Microsoft's balance sheet is no longer the most sterling in tech.

So who's got cash on hand? Here are the 10 richest tech companies, from a Yahoo Finance screening. (I left out companies, like IBM, whose cash was matched by equally outsized debts.)

China Mobile, $31.0 billion
China's oil, steel, and finance giants are investing overseas. Why not its leading wireless company? Yes, China censors its citizens. That was a trendy thing to worry about in August 2008.
Cisco Systems, $26.2 billion
Cisco's so proud of its cash pile, its investor-relations chief has blogged about it. If only investors had any confidence in Cisco's bizarre social-network acquisition strategy, which has nothing to do with its fine telecom-equipment assets. Memo to Cisco's M&A team: Just because it has the word "network" in it doesn't mean you have to buy it.
Microsoft, $21.2 billion
The $44 billion Yahoo offer was half in cash, half in stock, which would have strained Microsoft's finances and required it to take on some debt. Good thing it fell through.
Apple, $20.7 billion
In the '90s, Apple almost ran out of money. No danger of that happening soon. Ever-secretive Apple rarely makes big, splashy acquisitions; that could change if the right bargain comes along.
Google, $12.7 billion
A slumping share price may mean more acquisitions done for cash.
Intel, $12.0 billion
Intel's chip factories require billions of dollars in investment; count on Intel to spend its money there, rather than on cute Web companies.
Nokia, $10.8 billion
Like Cisco, Nokia's eager to be more of a Web player. Blogging and lifecasting are particular areas of interest. The cell-phone maker could throw investors a curveball and buy, say, Six Apart, Automattic, or Tumblr.
Dell, $9.0 billion
Dell could have more cash on its hands if it manages to sell its PC factories, a move it's considering as HP chips away at its business. On the shopping list: software and services.
Motorola, $7.2 billion
It's hard to see Motorola being an active acquirer until it figures out what to do with its cell-phone business.
Taiwan Semiconductor, $7.0 billion
AMD's only worth $2.6 billion, and TSMC already makes some chips for it. Why not just buy it?

Intel's good news: Not as bad off as AMD!

Owen Thomas — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:00:00 PDT

Intel's revenues for the most recent quarter were flat, but its profits were up 12 percent on expense cuts. (Read: layoffs!) Intel CEO Paul Otellini says the company expects to "outpace" its competition. Right: That would be AMD, the chipmaker which is trying to shed its chipmaking facilities. Outpacing AMD is like running a three-legged race against a double amputee. [WSJ]

AMD splitting in two, finally

Paul Boutin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:00:00 PDT

After months of teasing, AMD finally gave the New York Times the official word for publication this morning: The company will split into a chip design firm and a chip manufacturing company, temporarily named the Foundry Company, that will make chips for AMD and other clients. Abu Dhabi investment firm Advanced Technology has put up $2.1 billion for Foundry, with a pledge of billions more later. This leaves Intel, as new NYT reporter Ashlee Vance summarized, "the only significant maker of PC chips to still design and build its own products."

AMD can't find cash for company-saving spin-off

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:20:00 PDT

Advanced Micro Devices hasn't been able to raise the hundreds of millions of dollars it needs to spin off its chip-manufacturing business and focus on processor design. This news comes after AMD sold its digital-TV arm to Broadcom for $193 million in August. The spinoff was supposed to help AMD cut billions of dollars in red ink by taking the expensive plants off its balance sheet. [NYT]

Please share your semiconducted romances and microprocessed fears

Jackson West — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:20:00 PDT

Let's face it, the world of Web development and production is a glamorous sham. The real science is in semiconductors. That cute Ajax script kiddie with the asymmetrical haircut? Ask him to design a microprocessor cache bus. Learn a little ActionScript? Go ahead and try to get a job pinning Intel chips to nuclear reactor control systems or laser-guided bombs. Even if you're a C++ jock or MapReduce expert, your gonads shrink when an actual electronic engineer is in the room. It's okay, you can admit it. We will.

We've been focused too much on software and content, even though we know there's someone from SanDisk who just flipped their lid on the playa. Likewise, there must be some poor pacifist at PA Semi who, all too happy to get sold to Apple, learned they had to continue engineering chip fab designs for jets, subs and choppers. I mean, c'mon, AMD minions, can you come up with no good dirt on Intel executives? I yearn to hear the stories from the actual front lines of technology, and not from the front of the line at the British Bankers Club or 111 Minna. Do tell. (Photo by Marcin Wichary)

AMD sells digital TV arm to Broadcom for $193 million

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:20:00 PDT

Chipmaker AMD's cash reserves dropped 17 percent during the first half of 2008. To boost that investor-worrying number, AMD has agreed to sell its digital-TV business to Broadcom for $193 million. 530 AMD employees will join Broadcom as a result. A job perk: Hearing about the fun times Broadcom veterans enjoyed when ex-CEO Henry Nicholas ran the shop.

AMD teases Valley with slow-motion split

Paul Boutin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:20:00 PDT

A month before the Valley's perpetual Avis of chipmakers coronated heir apparent Dirk Meyer as CEO in July, the company had leaked rumors of a pending split into two separate businesses. One would be solely devoted solely to running the company's two chip-fabrication plants, the other to doing all the fun stuff. The upside for AMD?

By selling off its fab plants, it could hopefully turn around its $1 billion-plus losses. Tom's Hardware Guide spinoff TG Daily now cites "sources" — don't you hate those? I know I do — who claim the split is only weeks away. Here's what's really happening: The split is real. The "leaks" and "sources" are AMD's way of letting the market know what's up without formally committing to it in a statement.

AMD CEO Hector Ruiz out

Owen Thomas — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:40:00 PDT

The CEO who, for a moment, turned the tide in AMD's long struggle with rival chipmaker Intel, is out, replaced by COO Dirk Meyer. The company recently posted a $1.2 billion loss. [San Jose Mercury News]

AMD to take nearly $1 billion loss for the quarter -- but only issues $32 million in pink slips

Paul Boutin — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:00:00 PDT

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices will take a $948 million charge for Q2, the company announced this morning. Much like last year, the bulk of the writedown is due to the declining value of the company's ATI acquisition, for which it paid $5.4 billion in 2006. The resulting lines of cellphone graphics chips and digital TV chips just haven't sold as well as expected. The company's quad-core mobile graphics chip, codenamed Eagle, won't arrive to save the day until 2010. More important to some of us: A $32 million charge for employee severance packages.

Tech's 10 worst-rated CEOs, according to their employees

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:00:00 PDT

Benchmark-backed Glassdoor.com popped out of stealth mode as a site that lets users find out what employees think of their employers. As a part of the ratings, company CEO's get a grade. Some, such as Cisco's John T. Chambers and Apple's Steve Jobs fared very well — coming away with 93 percent and 95 percent approval ratings. Others, including Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, did not. The ten worst-rated CEO's and what employees told Glassdoor they think about them, below.

VeriSign chairman Jim Bidzos
An employee's advice to senior management:

Don't drag out the divestiture process in an effort to get a few extra bucks. And if you're going to kill the whole thing, be honest with employees about opportunities.

AMD chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz
An employee's advice to senior management:

AMD needs to go back to basics. What business is AMD in, who do you need onboard to lead the company in that business, who do you need that can create demand for the product, and what do the customers want? Ignore the "how" and focus on the "who." Stop treating employees like costs and more like assets. Threatening cubical hoteling and pushing the "do more with less" story is oppressive, not inspiring. The most marketable talent will leave first.

EMC CEO and chairman Joe Tucci
An employee's advice to senior management:

Senior management needs to respect its employees, listen to feedback and not bury its head in the sand as it relates to issues of sexism and lack of diversity. The culture continues to be predominantly young white men and this is largely because people hire who they know. "Breaking the glass ceiling" requires a lot of sacrifice! They will cite a few examples of high profile women, but these are the exception, not the rule. Work/life balance is not a priority in this company. Most of the highest ranking professional women in this organization are unmarried or do not have children. They need to recognize the need for more flexible work options that promote the importance of family. And most importantly, there need to be consequences for illegal and unethical behavior, regardless of who commits it! People cannot be protected from this. There are too many blind eyes turned when sexual harassment, illegal business practices, or other unethical acts occur.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang

An employee's advice to senior management:

Be more open to the workforce opinions. Be more humble. Be less political. Listen more, do more, and quickly.

eBay CEO John Donahoe
An employee's advice to senior management:

Streamline the process so people can focus more on getting their work done. Share more of the details of the vision for eBay and the competition of eBay.

Symantec CEO John Thompson
An employee's advice to senior management:

Open your eyes to how the actually successful companies are doing it. Use your talent pool and clear the way to innovate internally. Shift the focus from salesmanship to inherent quality. Build products that sell themselves rather than needing an aggresive sales cycle to move.

Hewlett-Packard chairman, president and CEO Mark Hurd
An employee's advice to senior management:

Stop screwing the employees. Stop reducing benefits every week. Stop saying you plan to invest in research and development when you are actually reducing everything except your bonuses. Start treating people as people. Get some moral fiber.

EDS chairman, president and CEO Ron Rittenmeyer
An employee's advice to senior management:

As I said above, either learn to trust the junior leadership you put into place or replace them. Set goals and then GET OUT OF THE WAY and allow the leadership the flexibility to execute to them. If they don't perform, release them. The micromanagement culture has to stop.

IBM chairman, president and CEO Sam Palmisano
An employee's advice to senior management:

One thing is missing though, an acceptance of the fact that there are "superstars" in the world, and that these superstars perform several orders of magnitude better than regular employees. What is missing within IBM is the ability to seek out, and nourish these superstars. Over time superstars will leave IBM because they will get much more recognition in other organizations. This has an impact on IBM's ability to deliver some things.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
An employee's advice to senior management:

There is a severe lack of leadership in the company. With so many things going on it takes executives too long to commit to business decisions and too long to pick up on competitive responses to disruptive technologies.Microsoft promotes based on 2 facets - technical knowledge and political saavy. What Microsoft does not promote based on is leadership ability, managerial ability or business saavy.

(Photo of Ballmer by AP/Sarbach)

AMD CEO Hector Ruiz promises profitability, but reveals no concrete plan

Jackson West — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:40:00 PDT

In today's scheduled conference with analysts in Austin, AMD CEO Hector Ruiz didn't make any rumored announcements about splitting the company into multiple divisions or contracting out the business of fabricating semiconductors. He did admit that 2007 was "a difficult year of transition," and that he was disappointed with the company's financial performance. Otherwise, he only promised that any plans regarding changes to AMD's fabrication division would come "in the very near future," and promised to cut any divisions that couldn't come up with plan to achieve profitability. Companywide, Ruiz promised only that he hoped to get the books back in black by the end of the year. The company's stock price was up briefly after the announcement on heavy trading after a drop, but is back to where it opened and treading water.

AMD accuses Intel of microprocessor payola

Jackson West — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:20:00 PDT

Struggling chipmaker AMD has added a new allegation to the company's antitrust complaint against rival chipmaker Intel. In a 108-page document filed in federal court, plaintiff AMD accused defendant Intel of paying manufacturers like Dell not to use AMD processors, citing internal emails and other documents which were turned over through the discovery process in the case. AMD has been struggling, having laid off thousands in the last few months. CEO Hector Ruiz, pictured here, is expected to make a major announcement today in Austin, Texas, possibly splitting up the company into separate chip-design and chip-fabrication businesses.

AMD CEO's "Business Class" brand gambit

Owen Thomas — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:00:00 PDT

Is Hector Ruiz launching AMD into the business of making PCs? Not exactly. But after getting pummeled by Intel in 2007, the chipmaker wants to have more of a hand in designing them. It's no longer enough to sell chips, a field in which AMD excels technically; one must sell "chipsets" — entire ready-to-go packages of computing parts, including all the silicon a computer needs. Dell, HP, and others will actually manufacture AMD's new "Business Class" desktops and notebooks.

The new branding effort will solve a problem of AMD's own making; with the purchase of ATI, a graphics-chip company, AMD signaled that it was more interested in winning business from videogamers and other consumers. Intel, meanwhile, remained the safe choice for companies to buy; no purchasing executive would blink at approving an order for PCs with Intel inside.

For years, Ruiz tried to beat Intel on technical prowess alone — "multicore" chips, "hyperthreading," and so on. That worked for a while: People were so amazed that AMD, long an Intel copycat, was beating its rival, that they bought more chips, perhaps out of the sheer novelty of it all. That Ruiz is now thinking about how his chips are packaged and sold is wise. But late.

(Photoillustration via Hexus)

Here's one person AMD won't have to lay off

Jordan Golson — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:20:00 PDT

Chipmaker AMD has announced several layoffs recently. This one, the company claims, has nothing to do with that. AMD's chief technology officer Phil Hester has resigned. The company will not be filling his position, but instead will rely on CTOs in individual technology groups within the company to run the show. Wait: AMD has more than one CTO? Why not lay off all of them? That seems easier.

Sometimes progress means getting spammed in Arabic

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:00:00 PDT

Last week saw news that a Saudia Arabian man murdered his daughter because she was using to Facebook to chat with a boy and that merchants in Dubai sold AMD processors to Iranians who built them into Iraqi roadside bombs. But let's be clear, the place where Silicon Valley meets the Middle East isn't all honor killings and distributed warfare. For example, there's this piece of spam I got my in inbox today.

According to Google's translation tools, it reads: "We are pleased Smart Net company to offer you our services in the design, development and hosting sites." Sure, I'm not interested in buying any of those things, but I'm glad there's a market to be reached where the buyers and the sellers of such Web services both write in Arabic.

It helps me remember that the most popular Facebook group in the Saudi Arabian network is "Single and Looking in Saudi Arabia" and that merchants like those who resold AMD's products have fostered an entrepreneurial class in Dubai which promises to make the emirate less oil dependent and more progressive than its neighbors.

AMD cutting more jobs

Jordan Golson — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:00:00 PDT

Chipmaker AMD is cutting 10 percent of its workforce, about 1,650 jobs. Just last month the company axed 800 workers. The proximate cause: a prolonged price war between intel and AMD, lengthened by AMD's late introduction of a high-end chip for servers. [WSJ]

Iraqi bombs: AMD inside

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:21:40 PDT

Sunnyvale computer-chip manufacturer AMD has strained ties between the United States and Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates. In 2005, AMD chips were discovered inside unexploded roadside bombs similar to the kind depicted in the propaganda clip below. An anonymous American official told the New York Times that no deaths are "known" to have been linked to bombs with AMD inside.

Last year, the Bush administration said the AMD chips got inside roadside bombs due to unscrupulous merchants from Dubai who resold them at a higher price to Iranians. The UAE responded with promises to create a new export control law. But such laws have had "virtually had no effect, to be honest," Iranian trade expert Nasser Hashempour told the Times. "If someone wants to move something — get it to Iran — it is easy to be done." An AMD spokesman told the Times it binds customers to agreements to not resell products to Iran.

AMD cuts 800 jobs

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:40:34 PDT

Chipmaker AMD has laid off 5 percent of its workforce, reports the Inquirer. The cuts came across all divisions as AMD prepares to report due to lower-than-expected numbers for the quarter. What? Free booze for trade journos didn't do the trick? (Photo by My Hobo Soul)

Puff piece watch: AMD press party next Monday

Owen Thomas — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:00:35 PST

AMD is inviting journalists to a cocktail reception on Monday, February 25. I stopped reading the invitation at "no news will be discussed." The depressing thing? These wine-and-dine schemes actually work most of the time. Not because the tech press corps is swayed by free booze, but because most reporters are lazy. Proximity to power is more intoxicating than alcohol. Even if there's "no news," you can bet at least a few can be counted on to transcribe whatever the chipmaker's executives tell them. We'll pass on the party, but you can bet we'll be searching Google News for the obligatory stories about AMD's comeback against Intel the next morning. The invitation:

Hi Owen,
On Monday, February 25, senior AMD executives will be hosting a cocktail reception from 6 pm - 8 pm PT at the Marriott San Francisco (full logistics below). While no news will be discussed, it's a rare opportunity that we have so many senior-level executives across all divisions (server, desktop, mobile, graphics) together at the same time. We thought you'd enjoy the opportunity to network with these AMD executives and talk to them about our business and broader industry trends such as energy efficient PCs, new form factor computing devices, the ever increasing graphics demands of computers today, and virtualization in the datacenter, in a more informal setting.

Let me know if you'd like to attend and I will confirm your attendance.

AMD Executive Cocktail Reception

What: Informal networking reception with senior AMD executives

When: Monday, February 25th; 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PT

Where:

Marriott San Francisco

55 4th St

San Francisco, CA 94103

Who: Senior-level executives across all business units

Nvidia eyeing AMD acquisition?

Jordan Golson — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:20:17 PST

Nvidia should think about buying chipmaker AMD to "rearchitect it," according to American Technology Research analyst Doug Freedman. Translation: Kick out management, change its technology direction, and end AMD's perpetual Perils of Pauline drama. Both AMD and Intel have plans to integrate graphics functions into their microprocessors, rendering Nvidia's graphics cards superfluous. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang would be a good candidate to turn around AMD's fortunes, and "buying AMD propels nVidia into a formidable competitor for Intel," says Freedman.

There's just one problem. AMD has survived as an also-ran to Intel because of a cross-licensing agreement that gives it access to Intel technology. That agreement would not transfer to Nvidia, and Intel's unlikely to strike a new deal with Nvidia. Antitrust concerns would also be significant as AMD recently bought Nvidia's biggest competitor, ATI. Then again, those same worries could work in Nvidia's favor. Since Intel is aggressively moving into Nvidia's graphics market, regulators might force it to strike a deal.

(Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

Nvidia to spend $30 million-plus on first consumer ad campaign

Jordan Golson — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:00:51 PST

High-end graphics card maker Nvidia is making an ad push to make the brand as recognizable as Intel, which has spend millions on its "Intel Inside" ad campaign. Nvidia controls more than two-thirds of the market for desktop graphics cards but is facing competition from Intel and AMD, which bought graphics chipmaker ATI last year. Must be exciting for Nvidia marketing exec Dan Vivoli, who finally gets to spend some money after 10 years at the company: The ad campaign could cost as much as $30 million-$40 million, compared to a $353,000 spend in the first 9 months of 2007.

The European Commission raided Intel's Munich ...

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:34:13 PST

The European Commission raided Intel's Munich offices and several computer resellers in Germany today. Officials are investigating claims that Intel gives hardware manufacturers cash, rebates and discounts to use its chips instead of rival AMD's. [WSJ]

Dude, you're not getting a Dell ... with an AMD chip

Jordan Golson — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:19:00 PST

Dell has stopped selling almost all consumer PCs with AMD processors in favor of chips from Intel. It will continue to sell AMD machines over the phone and through retail partners like Wal-Mart, but since much of Dell's computer sales are through its website, this is a serious blow to AMD. Dell spokesman David Frink did not give any reasoning behind the switch, but said "we adjust our product offerings frequently." A posting on the Direct2Dell blog said "we are committed to the AMD product lines as a long-term partner to provide the maximum choice for our customers." Translation: Intel gave Dell a better deal. AMD shareholders were not impressed with the switch: AMD was off almost 3.5 percent on the day. (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

Tom Perkins on how Tom Perkins turned around HP

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:59:17 PST

BusinessWeek's Spencer Ante has another interview outtake with former Hewlett-Packard board member and Kleiner Perkins cofounder Tom Perkins. In it, Perkins explains how he helped turn around HP. Here's the 100-word version of the harrowing tale of board committees, patent policies and microprocessors oh my!

When I joined the board, the company was spending $5 billion a year on R&D and the board was oblivious. So we established this committee. It met the day before the board meetings and got into the strategic aspect of HP. Made it possible for Carly [Fiorina] and Mark [Hurd] to take risks. HP had had a very liberal technology licensing policy, actually paying out $100 million a year in royalties. At the first meeting of the technology committee we changed that. I insisted that every single license had to be signed by Fiorina. The second thing we did was get serious against Dell Direct. But the most important thing was we encouraged the company to redirect a lot of purchases of microprocessors to AMD from Intel.

New York investigates Intel for bullying

Tim Faulkner — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:28:48 PST

The state of New York is launching its own investigation into Intel's anticompetitive behavior, adding to a list including the European Commission and Korea, all egged on by chipmaking rival AMD. It's only natural for New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo to want in on the action. The accusations are similar to other investigations: penalizing computer makers who purchase non-Intel chips, improperly signing exclusive contracts, and cutting off competitors' access to distribution channels. In other words, conducting business a bit too effectively for rivals' tastes. Note that IBM's main chip-assembly plant is based in New York.

Fox Business News's Apple-AMD flub

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:31:40 PST

No need to bother with transcripts. Here's a clip of Fox Business News's scoop from this morning. FBN reported Apple purchased 8.1 percent of chipmaker AMD. But then, oh wait. Never mind. Still, sounds like it would have been a real swell idea.

That's "Abu Dubai," not "Apple," buying AMD

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:09:25 PST

You heard about Abu Dubai snapping up 8.1 percent of AMD? Well, FBN anchor Alexis Glick read the tape wrong as the news came across the wire and announced Apple invested in the chipmaker. This led to a good three minutes of hjinx as contributor Charles Payne analyzed the news. When Glick tried to correct herself, it just got worse. SAI transcribed the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:

CONTRIBUTOR CHARLES PAYNE: "Well, yeah, and AMD needs, uh - that's real smart by Apple because AMD is in trouble right now. AMD has always had two problems: either it had a great product that was either sometimes superior to Intel but not the distribution, or it would have a terrible product that obviously they couldn't compete. And they're sort of in the middle right now - they haven't had great product offerings per se recently, the stock has been really just sort of muddling along, so I gotta tell you, Peter, I think it's a smart play by both companies to get involved with each other."
BARNES: "And we are getting some more news [inaudible]"

GLICK: "That, oh, it's not Apple. Let me just correct ourselves here.

Chipmakers' stocks fell yesterday after a ...

Jordan Golson — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:56:42 PDT

Chipmakers' stocks fell yesterday after a Morgan Stanley report advised investors to sell Intel and AMD because of a possible price war between the two. Of course, what's bad for chipmakers is good news for PC makers, and computer buyers. Baby needs a new Mac. Bring on the price war, we say! [The Register]

Brits act like twits at Intel event

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:56:59 PDT

CONFONZ — The Conference Fonzie was certain that Britain was known for its manners. Those beloved British boxing boys are supposed to be well behaved and polite in all social situations, aren't they? Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to apply to imported Limey tech journalists. To their credit, Intel's international press day, a preface to the Intel Developer Forum at San Francisco's Moscone Center later this week, is a somewhat dull event.

But if you're tasked with covering the year's most important event for processor-geeks, you can damn sure shut the fuck up while Intel engineer James Reinders explains how multi-threaded programming hurts like 8 bitches on a bitch boat.

Intel did its little dance, talking about how more power and more cores can help businesses. And, yes, Reinders is no Steve Jobs. But compilers that support software transactional memory are still really fucking cool.

These sniggering Brits obviously didn't attend AMD's new processor launch last Monday night. That event redefined yawning and boredom. At least Intel had the decency to pay for its venue... The ConFonz hears that AMD's constant ball rubbing of Lucasfilm resulted in the garnering of a free place to hold its party and press conference: both in the Presidio, and both completely fucking dull.

Intel's Havok buy means game's on with AMD

Mary Jane Irwin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:22:05 PDT

Intel has snagged videogame programming tools provider Havok. Its "physics engine," among other software products, is widely used in the industry to simulate real-world motion inside games. Havok will continue to operate independently, but is likely to offer Intel-specific products to aid in the chipmaker's gaming arms race with AMD. Intel needs all the help it can purchase to drum up support for its upcoming Larrabee graphics chip. So how does Havok fit in?

Havok isn't responsible for how a videogame looks or plays, but it adds believability to the experience. Havok's software helps In-game objects behave reasonably like they would in the real world. If you knock into a table, items will fall off. And, of course, any enemy killed will realistically slump to the floor. In the clip below from 2K Game's Bioshock you can see Havok at work.

AMD's chief sales officer, Henri Richard, ...

Owen Thomas — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:58:37 PDT

AMD's chief sales officer, Henri Richard, has reportedly resigned, amidst a bruising competition with rival chipmaker Intel. [Hexus]

Third quarter score sheet: Intel and Yahoo lose

Nick Douglas — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:18:37 PDT

It's quarterly report time in businessland, let's check the score!

EBay beat revenue predictions last quarter — thanks to a stellar performance by PayPal — but expects a lousy 2007. If the stock doesn't pick up fast, this could be eBay's worst year since 2000. Blame Skype, which has sucked money from the company since eBay bought it last year. [Bloomberg]
Chip maker AMD's profits rose, but it spent more to get them — [CNW Group]
— while Intel earned this line from a commenter on The Street: "It takes a certain frame of mind to view a quarter in which net income plunged 35%, as a comeback." [The Street]
Apple pwned analysts' estimates (again), then lowballed its holiday season prediction (again). Damn showoffs. [Mercury News]
On the other hand, IBM surprised everyone with high profits as well. [Chicago Sun-Times]
This morning, Forbes asked about Yahoo's disappointing report, "Profits and sales go down, so the stock goes up?" Nope, after a post-earnings-report jump yesterday, the stock dropped by nearly 5% today (pictured). Is this trouble for the CEO? [Forbes]

Pop torts: Today in white-collar crime and lawsuits

Nick Douglas — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 11:22:47 PDT

A federal court threw out AMD's antitrust lawsuit against Intel, since the monopolistic activity didn't happen in America. AMD will have to fight Intel in the Asian and European theaters. [Ars Technica]
Congress subpoenaed five private detectives whom HP contracted. The P.I.'s will testify in Congress's investigation of the HP spying scandal. [NY Times]
Authorities arrested the former head of telecom firm Comverse in Namibia, where he hid from charges of illegal stock manipulation. [Bloomberg]

Morning news: Steve Case is sorry, five years after that means anything

Nick Douglas — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 09:40:03 PDT

AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) pays $5.4 billion for ATI Technologies, which is about 5 times the fake valuation of YouTube and twice the fake valuation of Facebook. [NYT]
One more score for the tiered Internet. The quality of the average Voice-over-IP call is falling, and not just because of the Vonage operator breathing heavily in the background. [CNET]
AOL co-founder Steve Case tells Charlie Rose, "Yes, I'm sorry I did it," about merging with Time Warner in 2001. A quick check with every executive at AOL says yeah, they're sorry he did it too. [Reuters]
Real estate site Zillow, another tool for pretending your house is worth more than it is, takes $25 million in its second round of funding. It has yet to make a profit. [SiliconBeat]
A judge considers a $90 million Google clickfraud lawsuit; if advertisers win, they get credits to advertise with Google, thus ensuring a gravy train of recursive clickfraud lawsuits for life. [BusinessWeek]

AMD executives practice evil eye

ndouglas — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 13:55:33 PST

When we saw AMD president Dirk Meyer staring into our inner beings from a banner ad, we were compelled to click through and rewarded with a multimedia journey into the dark heart of man. AMD put a little "online event" together to show just how terribly they need a new marketing team. More scary heads on teal backgrounds after the jump.

Apparently Mr. Image Problem didn't have just one bad photo at this video shoot; that's how he looked all day. Either the man is putting on a brave face to hide his stress from a world gone Intel, or they couldn't get him to sit still without an entire baggie of pot.

Dirk starts to talk about senior vice president Daryl Ostrander. But hey, that's not Daryl! That is an engineer peering through the shadows of the AMD jungle.

Ah, there's Daryl. And he's speaking. But why is he silent? Dirk's giant head still speaks audibly. It becomes clear: no one makes a sound, no matter the effort, when Lord Dirk is onstage.

If AMD needs a new marketing strategy, we highly recommend putting their executives in clean-room bunny suits — if only to shield us from their soul-searching eyes.

AMD Online Event [AMD]