AMD to Split Into Separate Design and Manufacturing Companies
Posted 10/07/08 at 11:42:20 AM by Paul Lilly
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AMD, once on top of the world with its Athlon 64 lineup, has been hit hard by Intel ever since the rival chip maker abandoned its infatuation with Netburst and began pushing its Core architecture to much fanfare. Phenom hasn't been the phenomenal success AMD had hoped it would be, and it appears the company has finally reached a crossroads for future operations.
Rather than continue on with business as usual, AMD has chosen another path, one in which the chip maker will be split into two companies, with one staying focused on designing processors and the other setting its sights on manufacturing them. Giving the separated companies a boost, AMD says it will receive at least $6 billion from two Abu Dhabi investment firms, which will mostly go towards financing a new chip factory near Albany and to upgrade the company's Fab in Dresden, Germany.
AMD will own 44 percent of the new entity, which will temporarily be known as the Foundry Company, with the Abu Dhabi government formed Advanced Technology Investment Company owning the rest. ATIC will invest $2.1 billion in the venture right way, with $3.6 billion to $6 billion to be injected later on.
"We generally believe this deal is a game changer for the industry," said Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chief executive of Mubadala. "It's bold, and I think it's smart."
AMD's Dirk Meyer agrees, saying the split will make AMD a financially stronger company. And there's no doubt AMD could use financial relief, who at last count reported it carried a $5.3 billion debt while maintaining only $1.6 billion in cash.
Could this be the boost AMD needs to finally go toe-to-toe with Intel, or is this the beginning of the end? Hit the jump and post your thoughts.
Image Credit: AMD
gotta love it when a
Submitted by whisp on Wed, 10/08/2008 - 7:24pm
gotta love it when a company doesn't even own itself. sounds like artists in the music industry @_@
"we Plan for Tomorrow, but we Live for Today"
how the heck did the dubai
Submitted by atomaweapon on Wed, 10/08/2008 - 10:27am
how the heck did the dubai gov't get a owning stake in amd? I'm not really feeling buying AMD now that a middle eastern company owns half of them. Even with that being said I haven't used an AMD chip since I had a 500 mhz Compaq nearly 10 years ago. Intel is just dominating nowadays and I see no reason to switch to a sub-par product owned by a middle eastern govt.
Though it's good Intel won't have a monopoly and on the positive side I'm sure dubai can afford to infuse amd with some cash.
Ha ha ha a federal
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 4:21pm
Ha ha ha a federal government stepped in and bailed a company out. See we aint the only guys doing this kinda thing however it aint 700billion that the banks didn't deserve.
That 700b was for the banks not the people losing their homes.. LOL... We are all suckers. And I'm one really confused Bush voter. Anyhow
I hope that the Abu whatever government doesn't step in with it's controlling interest in the company and ruin things further. That would really suck. The thing with a government owning a company is that they don't care what happens to their money as it's other peoples money. That government got it's money from taxing it's people. So the gov't leaders really don't care if the company never becomes profitable.
I hope this changes things around for AMD. I hope that AMD goes back to the drawing board and does something like use Alien technology reverse engineered from the Roswell crash to make a chip that is 1000 times more powerfull and faster than Nehalem. Make a CPU that is so outrageous. CPU makers don't want to make something that's super fast they just want to make incremental changes in performance and technology so they have a stable product that they can sell year after year at a premium. AMD needs more than just an incremental change here to survive. They need to do more than just try and compete with intel. They need to blow intel out of the water.
They need a processor that is faster and more powerful than anything intel has and sell it for about the same as an Intel middle of the road cpu.
Get Ready...
Submitted by winmaster on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 4:01pm
Get ready for Intel to own a monopoly. AMD ain't lookin' so well.
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Im glad
Submitted by marshall834 on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 1:45pm
I'm glad this is happening. I really really hope that AMD can pull this together and finally get a chance to catch up to Intel. It would be best for the industry and for us the consumers if AMD survives. I bought a Phenom x4 not that long ago, and I am really happy with it. Now, I know it doesn't compare to the Core archetecture, but hey- I figure my money is going to help fuel competition?
Submitted by GFC on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 10:20am
Finally there's some hope to AMD.
I'm actualy very happy to hear this. I hope that it will only be positive inpact for AMD, and it might realy get it's stuff together and fight Intel head on.And what does that mean to us ? Well obviously, more competition - lower prices.
So for us, the users, i hope AMD can get it's stuff together.
Submitted by strykyr on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 10:17am
AMD is crap anyway and buying ATI just made them stink more.
Wow
Submitted by Tekzel on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 12:23pm
Its one thing to be completely clueless, but another thing entirely to willfully display it in public for all to see. You should try to be a little less obvious going forward.
Anyway, I hope this works out well for AMD. I just recently bought my first Intel processor since the 486 was king. I got a Q6600. I really wanted to get a Phenom, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. Everyone sporting those nice fast multicore Core Duo processors owe it entirely to AMD. If not for the strong thrashing they were giving Intel during the Athlon 64 reign of supremacy you would still be using a ratty old Netburst processor. Companies do not innovate out of the goodness of their hearts, or as a personal challenge. They do so for one reason only: to compete. Absent the pressure from a strong competitor and they just sit on what they have and sell it forever. In no way is the Phenom processor a BAD processor. It just isn't quite up to standing up to the Core Duo processor.
Regarding ATI, I have been a fan of nVidia GPUs for many years, mostly because their drivers have always been awesome. Easy to obtain, and they work well and are updated frequently. ATI on the other hand, their drivers (in my experience) always sucked. Pain in the ass to find, and problematic as hell. The new hardware coming from ATI is outstanding, hopefully the drivers are as good now. I am soon going to upgrade my venerable old Geforice 7800 GT (which still serves me well!) to one of the new ATI Radeon 4870s, the price is right and I would like to be able to play Crysis finally with the settings set at a decent level.
Monay
Submitted by maniacm0nk3y on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 9:56am
Now they can concentrate more on two seperate places instead of having one big operation going on. Now about the prospect of a money increase....only if we can pull out of the financial crisis. At least the DOW regained something after the bailout.
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