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I hate it when companies leak to the New York Times before they leak to me. AMD will lay off nearly 500 employees. But as Ashlee Vance notes, that leaves 14,960 more to lay off next quarter. More »
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Where's the debt crisis in Silicon Valley? The knock-on effects are all too real, but frozen credit markets have had little direct effect on business operations, aside from possibly scotching the debt-fueled sales of Alltel and Nextel. That's because technology companies are run by paranoid sorts who like to keep large cash reserves, in case some upstart renders their market obsolete. In good times, activist shareholders whinged about their parsimonious habits, but the cash hoarders are now sitting pretty — and could be set for acquisition binges. More »
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Intel's revenues for the most recent quarter were flat, but its profits were up 12 percent on expense cuts. (Read: layoffs!) Intel CEO Paul Otellini says the company expects to "outpace" its competition. Right: That would be AMD, the chipmaker which is trying to shed its chipmaking facilities. Outpacing AMD is like running a three-legged race against a double amputee. [WSJ] More »
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After months of teasing, AMD finally gave the New York Times the official word for publication this morning: The company will split into a chip design firm and a chip manufacturing company, temporarily named the Foundry Company, that will make chips for AMD and other clients. Abu Dhabi investment firm Advanced Technology has put up $2.1 billion for Foundry, with a pledge of billions more later. This leaves Intel, as new NYT reporter Ashlee Vance summarized, "the only significant maker of PC chips to still design and build its own products." More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5060038&view=rss&microfeed=true ♦  Invoking emergency powers, the Fed will create a special fund to buy up commercial paper—short-term debt that companies typically use for such things as payroll—in an effort to ease up the credit markets. [Bloomberg] More »
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Advanced Micro Devices hasn't been able to raise the hundreds of millions of dollars it needs to spin off its chip-manufacturing business and focus on processor design. This news comes after AMD sold its digital-TV arm to Broadcom for $193 million in August. The spinoff was supposed to help AMD cut billions of dollars in red ink by taking the expensive plants off its balance sheet. [NYT] More »
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Let's face it, the world of Web development and production is a glamorous sham. The real science is in semiconductors. That cute Ajax script kiddie with the asymmetrical haircut? Ask him to design a microprocessor cache bus. Learn a little ActionScript? Go ahead and try to get a job pinning Intel chips to nuclear reactor control systems or laser-guided bombs. Even if you're a C++ jock or MapReduce expert, your gonads shrink when an actual electronic engineer is in the room. It's okay, you can admit it. We will. More »
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Chipmaker AMD's cash reserves dropped 17 percent during the first half of 2008. To boost that investor-worrying number, AMD has agreed to sell its digital-TV business to Broadcom for $193 million. 530 AMD employees will join Broadcom as a result. A job perk: Hearing about the fun times Broadcom veterans enjoyed when ex-CEO Henry Nicholas ran the shop. More »
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A month before the Valley's perpetual Avis of chipmakers coronated heir apparent Dirk Meyer as CEO in July, the company had leaked rumors of a pending split into two separate businesses. One would be solely devoted solely to running the company's two chip-fabrication plants, the other to doing all the fun stuff. The upside for AMD? More »
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• Merrill Lynch's $4.65 billion second-quarter loss was almost twice what analysts had predicted; the firm also wrote down an additional $9.5 billion in connection with subprime losses. [Bloomberg]
• Citigroup's posted a better-than-expected loss of $2.5 billion for the quarter, which Vikram Pandit is spinning as progress since the bank lost $5.1 billion last quarter. [NYT]
• Troubled mortgage financing giant Freddie Mac is weighing selling up to $10 billion in new shares to raise capital. [WSJ]
• AMD president and COO Dirk Meyer will succeed Hector Ruiz as the chip maker's CEO. [WSJ]
• Both Google and Microsoft issued rare disappointing earnings. [Bloomberg]
• Investors swindled by Samuel Israel III's Bayou Group are trying to recoup their losses from Goldman Sachs, Bayou's prime broker. [NYT]
• Teva is acquiring rival Barr Pharmaceuticals in a $7.46 billion deal. [WSJ]

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]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=500968&view=rss&microfeed=true The CEO who, for a moment, turned the tide in AMD's long struggle with rival chipmaker Intel, is out, replaced by COO Dirk Meyer. The company recently posted a $1.2 billion loss. [San Jose Mercury News] More »
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Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices will take a $948 million charge for Q2, the company announced this morning. Much like last year, the bulk of the writedown is due to the declining value of the company's ATI acquisition, for which it paid $5.4 billion in 2006. The resulting lines of cellphone graphics chips and digital TV chips just haven't sold as well as expected. The company's quad-core mobile graphics chip, codenamed Eagle, won't arrive to save the day until 2010. More important to some of us: A $32 million charge for employee severance packages. More »
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Click to viewBenchmark-backed Glassdoor.com popped out of stealth mode as a site that lets users find out what employees think of their employers. As a part of the ratings, company CEO's get a grade. Some, such as Cisco's John T. Chambers and Apple's Steve Jobs fared very well — coming away with 93 percent and 95 percent approval ratings. Others, including Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, did not. The ten worst-rated CEO's and what employees told Glassdoor they think about them, below. More »
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In today's scheduled conference with analysts in Austin, AMD CEO Hector Ruiz didn't make any rumored announcements about splitting the company into multiple divisions or contracting out the business of fabricating semiconductors. He did admit that 2007 was "a difficult year of transition," and that he was disappointed with the company's financial performance. Otherwise, he only promised that any plans regarding changes to AMD's fabrication division would come "in the very near future," and promised to cut any divisions that couldn't come up with plan to achieve profitability. Companywide, Ruiz promised only that he hoped to get the books back in black by the end of the year. The company's stock price was up briefly after the announcement on heavy trading after a drop, but is back to where it opened and treading water. More »
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Struggling chipmaker AMD has added a new allegation to the company's antitrust complaint against rival chipmaker Intel. In a 108-page document filed in federal court, plaintiff AMD accused defendant Intel of paying manufacturers like Dell not to use AMD processors, citing internal emails and other documents which were turned over through the discovery process in the case. AMD has been struggling, having laid off thousands in the last few months. CEO Hector Ruiz, pictured here, is expected to make a major announcement today in Austin, Texas, possibly splitting up the company into separate chip-design and chip-fabrication businesses. More »
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Is Hector Ruiz launching AMD into the business of making PCs? Not exactly. But after getting pummeled by Intel in 2007, the chipmaker wants to have more of a hand in designing them. It's no longer enough to sell chips, a field in which AMD excels technically; one must sell "chipsets" — entire ready-to-go packages of computing parts, including all the silicon a computer needs. Dell, HP, and others will actually manufacture AMD's new "Business Class" desktops and notebooks. More »
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Chipmaker AMD has announced several layoffs recently. This one, the company claims, has nothing to do with that. AMD's chief technology officer Phil Hester has resigned. The company will not be filling his position, but instead will rely on CTOs in individual technology groups within the company to run the show. Wait: AMD has more than one CTO? Why not lay off all of them? That seems easier. More »
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Last week saw news that a Saudia Arabian man murdered his daughter because she was using to Facebook to chat with a boy and that merchants in Dubai sold AMD processors to Iranians who built them into Iraqi roadside bombs. But let's be clear, the place where Silicon Valley meets the Middle East isn't all honor killings and distributed warfare. For example, there's this piece of spam I got my in inbox today. More »
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Chipmaker AMD is cutting 10 percent of its workforce, about 1,650 jobs. Just last month the company axed 800 workers. The proximate cause: a prolonged price war between intel and AMD, lengthened by AMD's late introduction of a high-end chip for servers. [WSJ] More »
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Sunnyvale computer-chip manufacturer AMD has strained ties between the United States and Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates. In 2005, AMD chips were discovered inside unexploded roadside bombs similar to the kind depicted in the propaganda clip below. An anonymous American official told the New York Times that no deaths are "known" to have been linked to bombs with AMD inside. More »
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Chipmaker AMD has laid off 5 percent of its workforce, reports the Inquirer. The cuts came across all divisions as AMD prepares to report due to lower-than-expected numbers for the quarter. What? Free booze for trade journos didn't do the trick? (Photo by My Hobo Soul) More »
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AMD is inviting journalists to a cocktail reception on Monday, February 25. I stopped reading the invitation at "no news will be discussed." The depressing thing? These wine-and-dine schemes actually work most of the time. Not because the tech press corps is swayed by free booze, but because most reporters are lazy. Proximity to power is more intoxicating than alcohol. Even if there's "no news," you can bet at least a few can be counted on to transcribe whatever the chipmaker's executives tell them. We'll pass on the party, but you can bet we'll be searching Google News for the obligatory stories about AMD's comeback against Intel the next morning. The invitation: More »
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Nvidia should think about buying chipmaker AMD to "rearchitect it," according to American Technology Research analyst Doug Freedman. Translation: Kick out management, change its technology direction, and end AMD's perpetual Perils of Pauline drama. Both AMD and Intel have plans to integrate graphics functions into their microprocessors, rendering Nvidia's graphics cards superfluous. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang would be a good candidate to turn around AMD's fortunes, and "buying AMD propels nVidia into a formidable competitor for Intel," says Freedman. More »
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High-end graphics card maker Nvidia is making an ad push to make the brand as recognizable as Intel, which has spend millions on its "Intel Inside" ad campaign. Nvidia controls more than two-thirds of the market for desktop graphics cards but is facing competition from Intel and AMD, which bought graphics chipmaker ATI last year. Must be exciting for Nvidia marketing exec Dan Vivoli, who finally gets to spend some money after 10 years at the company: The ad campaign could cost as much as $30 million-$40 million, compared to a $353,000 spend in the first 9 months of 2007. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=355522&view=rss&microfeed=true The European Commission raided Intel's Munich offices and several computer resellers in Germany today. Officials are investigating claims that Intel gives hardware manufacturers cash, rebates and discounts to use its chips instead of rival AMD's. [WSJ] More »
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Dell has stopped selling almost all consumer PCs with AMD processors in favor of chips from Intel. It will continue to sell AMD machines over the phone and through retail partners like Wal-Mart, but since much of Dell's computer sales are through its website, this is a serious blow to AMD. Dell spokesman David Frink did not give any reasoning behind the switch, but said "we adjust our product offerings frequently." A posting on the Direct2Dell blog said "we are committed to the AMD product lines as a long-term partner to provide the maximum choice for our customers." Translation: Intel gave Dell a better deal. AMD shareholders were not impressed with the switch: AMD was off almost 3.5 percent on the day. (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma) More »
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BusinessWeek's Spencer Ante has another interview outtake with former Hewlett-Packard board member and Kleiner Perkins cofounder Tom Perkins. In it, Perkins explains how he helped turn around HP. Here's the 100-word version of the harrowing tale of board committees, patent policies and microprocessors oh my! More »
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The state of New York is launching its own investigation into Intel's anticompetitive behavior, adding to a list including the European Commission and Korea, all egged on by chipmaking rival AMD. It's only natural for New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo to want in on the action. The accusations are similar to other investigations: penalizing computer makers who purchase non-Intel chips, improperly signing exclusive contracts, and cutting off competitors' access to distribution channels. In other words, conducting business a bit too effectively for rivals' tastes. Note that IBM's main chip-assembly plant is based in New York. More »
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You heard about Abu Dubai snapping up 8.1 percent of AMD? Well, FBN anchor Alexis Glick read the tape wrong as the news came across the wire and announced Apple invested in the chipmaker. This led to a good three minutes of hjinx as contributor Charles Payne analyzed the news. When Glick tried to correct herself, it just got worse. SAI transcribed the whole thing, but here's an excerpt: More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=323856&view=rss&microfeed=true Chipmakers' stocks fell yesterday after a Morgan Stanley report advised investors to sell Intel and AMD because of a possible price war between the two. Of course, what's bad for chipmakers is good news for PC makers, and computer buyers. Baby needs a new Mac. Bring on the price war, we say! [The Register] More »
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CONFONZ — The Conference Fonzie was certain that Britain was known for its manners. Those beloved British boxing boys are supposed to be well behaved and polite in all social situations, aren't they? Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to apply to imported Limey tech journalists. To their credit, Intel's international press day, a preface to the Intel Developer Forum at San Francisco's Moscone Center later this week, is a somewhat dull event. More »
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Intel has snagged videogame programming tools provider Havok. Its "physics engine," among other software products, is widely used in the industry to simulate real-world motion inside games. Havok will continue to operate independently, but is likely to offer Intel-specific products to aid in the chipmaker's gaming arms race with AMD. Intel needs all the help it can purchase to drum up support for its upcoming Larrabee graphics chip. So how does Havok fit in? More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=300579&view=rss&microfeed=true AMD's chief sales officer, Henri Richard, has reportedly resigned, amidst a bruising competition with rival chipmaker Intel. [Hexus] More »
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It's quarterly report time in businessland, let's check the score! More »
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• A federal court threw out AMD's antitrust lawsuit against Intel, since the monopolistic activity didn't happen in America. AMD will have to fight Intel in the Asian and European theaters. [Ars Technica]
• Congress subpoenaed five private detectives whom HP contracted. The P.I.'s will testify in Congress's investigation of the HP spying scandal. [NY Times]
• Authorities arrested the former head of telecom firm Comverse in Namibia, where he hid from charges of illegal stock manipulation. [Bloomberg]

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• AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) pays $5.4 billion for ATI Technologies, which is about 5 times the fake valuation of YouTube and twice the fake valuation of Facebook. [NYT]
• One more score for the tiered Internet. The quality of the average Voice-over-IP call is falling, and not just because of the Vonage operator breathing heavily in the background. [CNET]
• AOL co-founder Steve Case tells Charlie Rose, "Yes, I'm sorry I did it," about merging with Time Warner in 2001. A quick check with every executive at AOL says yeah, they're sorry he did it too. [Reuters]
• Real estate site Zillow, another tool for pretending your house is worth more than it is, takes $25 million in its second round of funding. It has yet to make a profit. [SiliconBeat]
• A judge considers a $90 million Google clickfraud lawsuit; if advertisers win, they get credits to advertise with Google, thus ensuring a gravy train of recursive clickfraud lawsuits for life. [BusinessWeek]

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When we saw AMD president Dirk Meyer staring into our inner beings from a banner ad, we were compelled to click through and rewarded with a multimedia journey into the dark heart of man. AMD put a little "online event" together to show just how terribly they need a new marketing team. More scary heads on teal backgrounds after the jump. More »
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