AMD
today announced that it’s ‘optimizing its cost structure’ - a nice way of saying that it’s going to be making 10 per cent of its global workforce redundant while terminating '
existing contractual commitments'.
The reduction in staff is expected to save the company up to $118 million over the course of 2012 which, when added to the $90 million AMD says it’s going to save through ‘operational efficiencies’, means the company should be shaving over $200 million from its costs next year.
AMD has stated that it expects the restructuring plan ‘
to take place primarily during the fourth quarter of 2011, with some activites extending into 2012’. Interestingly, it also announced that it expects the plan to actually cost $105 million to implement, a cost presumably made up of redundancy cheques and relocation expenses.
Obviously, AMD are remaining externally upbeat about the whole thing, saying the plan will ‘
strengthen the company’s competitive positioning’ and ‘
rebalance [its] global workforce skillsets, helping AMD to continue delivering industry-leading products’.
It’s unclear whether this move has been in the works for a while or if it’s a direct result of the worldwide panning that AMDs new Bulldozer based
FX processors endured. This coupled with what we’re hearing is low demand for its Llano-based chips (which we
really like, by the way) doesn’t make for a rosy outlook for the company.
Do you think AMD's belt-tightening will keep them competitive? Will its new Bulldozer-based Opterons save its bacon? Let us know your thoughts in
the forum.
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