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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dan3 who wrote (65564)	12/12/2001 11:23:15 PM
From: Mani1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Sanders leads AMD's latest charge eb-asia.com If Intel Corp is skewing megahertz in its microprocessors as Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) claims, isn't AMD skewing the performance of its own processors by attaching model numbers that indicate higher performance than the clock frequency indicates? Jerry Sanders, chairman and chief executive officer of AMD, fielded that question recently when he announced the company's Athlon market strategy. "Intel has 80% market share in microprocessors, and they have spent billions of dollars establishing megahertz in the minds of the public," Sanders says. "People have become familiar with what Intel is doing. But a 1.53GHz Athlon XP can outperform their chip. We have got to find a new way to measure processor performance, and the model number is an easy way for people to remember. What I say is take it out for a test drive. It is a shorthand method of comparing microprocessor performance." AMD is getting hit hard by the downturn in the economy. While Sanders would like to see his company increase its market share in microprocessors beyond 22%, it expects to report a loss for the third quarter while its gross margins have declined to around 19%. In the meantime, Intel has dropped prices on microprocessors, drastically forcing AMD to respond. How does Sanders keep his shareholders from grumbling? "I tell them we have a strong balance sheet and that the cash burn is minimal," Sanders says. "I see us being able to withstand this situation for years. "We've been here before. In the four years prior to 2000, we lost money. But we made more money in 2000 than in the prior four years. But the business is cyclical, and while it is difficult today, we will have a leadership position when business returns because we have the lowest manufacturing cost. I mean this is a time when Intel's profits were down 94% last quarter. I tell our shareholders that we are on course, on speed and to double up.