Stephen,Re: "WSJ thursday has an article about AMD having trouble"
Here is the article:
Advanced Micro Says It Expects To Report Small Operating Loss
By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said it will report
a small operating loss for the third quarter, a surprise setback in
launching a new chip that is expected to pose competition for market
leader Intel Corp.
AMD said it ran into problems in boosting production of its new K6
microprocessor chips. The semiconductor maker said it now expects to
make about one million of the chips in the period ending Sept. 28,
compared with earlier expectations of around 1.2 million to
1.5 million, an AMD spokesman said. At the new level of output, the
costs of boosting production outweigh the revenue generated from the
chips.
AMD didn't quantify the size of the loss. Analysts' consensus was for
a profit of 31 cents a share, according to First Call. In the
year-earlier period, the company had a loss of $38 million, or 28
cents a share, on sales of $457 million.
The announcement was made after stock markets closed. AMD's shares
closed at $38.875, unchanged, in New York Stock Exchange composite
trading Wednesday, and drifted down to $36 in after-hours trading,
according to PT Discount Brokerage.
AMD, which has long struggled to compete with Intel's Pentium chip,
has been making some headway in landing top-tier personal computer
makers as customers, including International Business Machines Corp.
But those customers are particularly eager to get chips that operate
at speeds of 233 megahertz. The AMD spokesman said it experienced
problems in making as many of those fast chips as expected, as well
as experiencing other problems in increasing its yield of usable chips
from its manufacturing lines.
AMD said it expects to boost production to about two million units in
the fourth quarter. In addition, AMD said it has begun shipping
samples of a K6 version that operates at 266 megahertz and uses a
more advanced production process. |
