AMD denies layoffs taking place, wants kids off lawn
By Nilay Patel 
posted March 20th 2008 4:47PM
posted March 20th 2008 4:47PM
The rumor mill continues to buzz with speculation that AMD is laying off five percent of its staff across the board, but it looks like the company's trying to put out the fire -- we just spoke with AMD reps who denied that any layoffs had already taken place, but wouldn't comment further on "rumor or speculation." That's the message that's been going out to pretty much every media outlet today, so it's not clear if that means no job cuts are coming or if we're just playing a fun little semantic shell game. We're hoping things are turning around -- the company has been meeting ship dates for Phenom processors lately, and it's got the first certified DisplayPort card -- but we'll see how things pan out when the company announces its quarterly results.
AMD... helping keep unemployment higher since 2003
Looks like AMD has entered its middle ages before intel :P
In Austin, AMD seems to be hiring. I know of several people who just recently got hired over there (including one of our VP's bolting to become CIO).
It's a little depressing that so many tech writers (people ostensibly with their fingers on the pulse of the business world) know so little about business. Downsizing and layoffs don't necessarily mean bad times.
I mean, from the perspective of the corporation and its shareholders. Bad times all around for the poor saps who are newly out of a job.
AMD's just fiiinnee..
I've been supporting them for 10+ years. Quit sticking your noses in their business.
As a former shareholder who actually made money out of their stock, I sold it because the company kind of suck in their business, and the manner they lost key staffs before the launch of Barcelona, tsk tsk tsk. And not to be biased, I sold my Intel stocks as well, Tech is kind of the whipping boy of the misdeed of those bankers.
But otherwise, AMD and Intel are made for each other, AMD needs that David-Goliath fight, the plucky underdog, Intel needs AMD to keep antitrust away, sometimes AMD surprises them, keeping them on toe, both can't live without each other.
Don't get me wrong. I don't give two damns about either company (I just buy whatever processors are the best value at the time).
My comments were purely in a general sense: downsizing could mean a given company is preparing to grow, or it could mean that they've fallen on hard times. The fact that layoffs are occurring is not itself a metric of a company's success or a predictor of its imminent demise (as the tone of this article implied).
Josh: I'm the same as you, I don't care about brands, I get the one that packs the most bang for the buck (it's just generally AMD, but I'd buy Intel if they lowered their prices below AMD's without dropping performance like they're doing now).. And I agree that laying off employees doesn't mean bad for the business
Just wanted to add - It could also mean more robots ;-)
bad sign for me - I was trying to get a job there. I graduate in a few months. =[
Oh well, there are always other jobs for aspiring CPU designers, right? Lets hope Intel, IBM, VIA, NVIDIA, Freescale, etc aren't facing similar problems.
I bet you good money if they got a new CEO the stock price would skyrocket.
Turn on the sprinklers.