AMD Loses Half Market Value in 6 Mos., Investors Pessimistic
Rumors that AMD may be acquired by Qualcomm have lifted AMD's stock for a few days, but the company's shares have tumbled and there appears a persistent pessimistic sentiment about the firm's future.
AMD stock was trading in the neighborhood of $4.10 on Thursday, which is down from $8.25 in March of this year. The market cap of AMD has settled below $3 billion, the lowest since August 2009. The stock traded as high as $46 during the height of the dotcom boom and $40 in 2006, when the company was challenging Intel's processor dominance with its Opteron and Athlon X2 CPUs.
While AMD was able to recover in 2002 and 2009, there are signs that AMD may be stuck in the $4 segment for awhile. According to investment research firm Schaeffer's, almost 15 percent of current AMD stock investments are betting on a declining stock value over time. The firm noted that current trading indicate a bearish sentiment "for the long haul" and recent aggressive investments bet that the stock will drop even below $3 with a profitability target for short interest investments of $2.84 by January 2013.
So far, this is just speculation. However, there is no denying that AMD's board and investor base will grow increasingly nervous if the stock continues to slide. On the day CEO Rory Read was hired, AMD's stock stood at $6.49, and at $8.83 when his predecessor Dirk Meyer was let go. AMD's stock has always been rocked by sharp ups and downs and Meyer had to deal with prices as low as $1.82 in November 2008, but Read's hiring appeared to be focused exactly at avoiding those sharp declines.
The recent downward trend began in April 2010 and AMD's new executive management needs an effective plan to inject more confidence in the company again. Otherwise, the recently launched transition toward a much more consumer-oriented company could come to a sudden stop and AMD may turn into a bargain acquisition target for increasingly powerful ARM SoC designers.

their gpu business isn't failing, its the cpu business. too many delays on the release on their cpus(trinity was supposed to be may, opening up in october is an example)
Just because everyone knows that you're getting your ass handed to you by intel doesn't mean you can outright say so. Never show weakness.
Just because everyone knows that you're getting your ass handed to you by intel doesn't mean you can outright say so. Never show weakness.
their gpu business isn't failing, its the cpu business. too many delays on the release on their cpus(trinity was supposed to be may, opening up in october is an example)
And if AMD fails, they might spin-off their GPU department to save it. Or it gets purchased by Intel or ARM.
altough i agree that it would hurt de consumer that someone has a monopoly,
see how fast their sales would decline if they try to pull that off in this day and age...
I love AMD's APU approach. But everyone has to get bread and butter first.
Where are the AMD Windows 8 tablets? We've already had quite good units with the Acer W500 and MSI 110w but they were Windows 7 devices. Come on AMD! Talk about being left behind.
As I see it, the BD fiasco was a serious black eye for them.
Indian salt tax. You can either take the high priced stuff, or do without it.
You used to pay $1000 for an AMD cpu too!
It's complete trash. And no one can talk price because they are just as high. If not higher at one point.
I've never had an AMD last me more than a year.
Lesson, don't have a CFO become a CEO, may seem like a good idea on paper but one has to see the bigger picture.
Exactly, that is why we need balance in the market, not monopolistic dominance.
Anyhow, it is a shame and I am kicking myself for not getting out when the stock was $9-10 per share. I did trade some for Nvidia stock a while ago but that was only a small amount.