AMD Preparing For More Layoffs

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AMD employees are not getting much room to breathe these days. In addition to the 1,700 people that were just cut recently, AMD will be laying off an undisclosed number of people in the first half of 2013.

According to AMD, more pink slips are the result of previously announced restructuring actions to be taken over the next few months and while the number of cuts is believed to be smaller this time around, and while AMD apparently will not be letting anyone go before Christmas, there are certainly better news than having to look for a new job in the new year.

AllThings Digital refers to a few internal sources and states that AMD may be trying to get some of the layoffs right it did not get right before. Apparently, AMD is dealing with a dynamic environment at the moment, with no layoffs taking place before the leadership knows how many people are willing to leave voluntarily. Of course, such a policy may not help to boost an already low morale inside the company and some painful decisions may be dragged out rather than being done.

The layoff story adds to a rather interesting rumor that AMD is shopping for a buyer. AMD carefully denied that rumor, blaming it on a recurring phenomenon in the media. In a statement, the company said: "AMD is not actively pursuing a sale of the company or significant assets at this time." That statement may be the best description of AMD's leadership problem at this time: AMD's strategy and future is about as transparent as the meaning of "actively pursuing".

AMD's leadership has yet to describe a clear path to its employees and the outside how it intends to turn the company around. Even with reaffirmed notes that the company is on the right path, it's difficult to understand what AMD actually does. Our sources at AMD told us that it is not much better on the inside.

AMD does not need more bad news, delays and certainly not more blurry statements. AMD needs a clear message more than ever before. 

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Wolfgang Gruener
53 Comments Comment from the forums
  • valkain
    As sad as it is, AMD sounds like dinged up leaky ship that is progressively taking on water. Management is gutting and cannibalizing the insides of the ship just to keep it floating.
    Reply
  • dudewitbow
    I'm going to assume they are cutting out several of the people who aren't pulling their weight for their cost for the most part, and keeping those who are doing well(like the group of coders who pushed out 12.11)
    Reply
  • nebun
    well...this is one rason why i will not purchse anything AMD....before you know it there will not be any customer support because they can't afford to keep people on the payroll....this is very sad...nvidia and intel all the way, bitches :)
    Reply
  • esrever
    I wonder how many people they want to have left. Won't be too many after all of this.
    Reply
  • someoneelse
    It seems to me that AMD is so far off the pace in cpu's that their only hope is if one of the next generation of consoles use AMD fusion processors as it's main chip then maybe we'd have AMD optimized game code - put AMD back in the game. I doubt it would make a differece but a man can wish.
    Reply
  • edogawa
    Even though I highly prefer Intel, AMD has some pretty good budget processors. I hope the best for them to restructure and come back strong.
    Reply
  • abbadon_34
    someoneelseIt seems to me that AMD is so far off the pace in cpu's that their only hope is if one of the next generation of consoles use AMD fusion processors as it's main chip then maybe we'd have AMD optimized game code - put AMD back in the game. I doubt it would make a differece but a man can wish.
    Of course then they'd probably bail on PCs alltogether, or Nintendo buy them
    Reply
  • spentshells
    AMD isgoing to be a big winner after the next of apu get down below 80 watts.

    picture a core 2 Quad at 4 ghz or 1st gen i7 with with 6770 intergrated
    its coming sooner than later.

    The hawell die shrink is uninteresting to me cause my pc is large and I don`t mind the juice but I feel the intel intergrated gpu seriosly lack in performance is greater than the amd cpu lack in performance and as hd everything keeps stepping forward not today but in 2 years amd will come about

    I run intel but intergrated gpu they have sucks
    Reply
  • spentshells
    lacks
    Reply
  • balister
    Too many missteps with the with their latest CPUs has really cost them unfortuneatly. While the video card side of the house seems to still be doing well, the CPU line is lackluster. Rather problematic in the desktop/server segment as it leaves no real challenger to Intel which could cause the prices of processors in both the desktop and server segments to rise. One has to hope that somehow they'll return to form, but it doesn't look good right now.
    Reply