AMD Surprises With Revenue Warning

By Douglas Perry
published

AMD has told investors that its second quarter revenue will be much lower than previously anticipated.

Just when the company had freed itself from an exclusivity contract and improved the supply situation of its 32 nm processors, AMD has announced that consumer demand in China and Europe has weakened.

Compared to a forecast that saw second quarter revenue to remain at least flat or climb by up to 6 percent sequentially, the company cautioned investors on Monday that revenues will be about 11 percent lower than in the first quarter of this year. For Q1, AMD reported revenue of $1.59 billion. A decline of 11 percent would translate into a drop of more than $170 million into the neighborhood of $1.41 billion.

On a positive note, AMD said that operating expenses have been improved by about 8 percent compared to the previous guidance of $605 million, which would result in about $557 million and take AMD below the Q1 operating expenses of $598 million. The company did not say if it will be able to report a profit for Q2.

45 Comments Comment from the forums
  • zanny
    I think that spinning off Global Foundries might be the downfall of AMD. They sold it to stay a float when they bought ATI, and while buying ATI was a good move, losing their manufacturing arm made them.. sic.. just like ARM, except they don't own the instruction set they design chips for.
    Reply
  • deadlockedworld
    "operating expenses have been approved"

    something doesn't seem right here ...
    Reply
  • notlim981
    it's the global crysis... see what I just did there? :p
    Reply
  • alidan
    ZannyI think that spinning off Global Foundries might be the downfall of AMD. They sold it to stay a float when they bought ATI, and while buying ATI was a good move, losing their manufacturing arm made them.. sic.. just like ARM, except they don't own the instruction set they design chips for.
    think of 5 years out. intel tried, they did, to have a stand alone gpu years ago and failed.
    amd im betting saw the cpu+gpu working in tandem being a solution for the future.

    the cpu side of computing is more or less as good as it needs to be, even if a cpu doubled or trippled its power, it would do what? cut a 90 second operation that needs to be once into a 30 second operation? what programs require a top end intel cpu otherwise they feel sluggish?

    the hdd to sdd is one thing that makes a computer feel faster
    going from a phenom II x4 to an i7, while would be faster, wouldn't feel faster by much.
    however, look at cpu alone operations compared to gpu assisted operations.
    what a amd does in 10 minutes, intel does in 5, but any gpu does in 1.

    point being that the future is gpu+cpu in tandem, and intel wont be ready when it happens, amd will.

    sorry if my point doesnt come across well
    Reply
  • hotroderx
    To me this is scary news world would be a very bleak place if only Desktop/Laptop/Server Processor manufacture was Intel. The day AMD goes under is the day we all pay the price with our wallets in a very bad way.

    I am starting to wonder if maybe AMD should look at selling off ATI and just going back to strictly CPU manufacturing. Correct me if I am wrong but seems they where doing really really good (top of the market) before they purchased ATI.
    Reply
  • hotroderx
    oops double post
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    hotroderxI am starting to wonder if maybe AMD should look at selling off ATI and just going back to strictly CPU manufacturing. Correct me if I am wrong but seems they where doing really really good (top of the market) before they purchased ATI.They're stronger with a graphics division. Their slide in the CPU-only market was inevitable. They really woke Intel up, back in the K8 days. Unfortunetely, all that really meant was that a motivated/threatened Intel dumped huge amounts of cash into R&D and leveraged their increasingly-superior fabs to outclass AMD - at least in the high end.

    No, without their graphics division, they'd be dead meat. Not only are their discrete GPUs doing decently, but their latest APUs are actually competitive in low to mid range systems. Graphics is the only thing they really do better than Intel. If they continue to push GPU compute, and put GCN in their 3rd-gen APUs, they should be able to do decent across the board. Unfortunetely, they'll have to continue to fight tooth and nail, in the meantime.

    Also, I definitely agree with you regarding pricing. AMD keeps Intel in check. If AMD really gets in trouble they might have to start looking at a merger/sale scenario, and I'm sure Intel will make any such move into some kind of legal circus.
    Reply
  • amuffin
    They're stock price just dropped 10% last night.

    GL AMD.
    Reply
  • dj1001
    I really hope AMD doesn't go under, their E and C series apus stomp all over intel's atom platform. What I would like to see is AMD bring the APU platform into the mobile market ie. phones and tablets.
    Reply
  • hijaxhfx
    Intel having a Monopoly if AMD goes down is a scary thing
    Reply