Sunnyvale (CA) – AMD’s first quarter losses equaled $416 million, or 66 cents a share, compared with a
loss of $364 million, or 60 cents a share, for the year-earlier period. Nevertheless, the company managed to hit sales of $1.177 billion during the first quarter of 2009, which represents a 21% decrease compared to the first quarter of 2008.
“AMD’s sequential microprocessor unit and revenue growth in difficult economic conditions demonstrate we can grow in an environment where customers are looking for maximum value,” spun AMD CEO Dirk Meyer. “We delivered on a number of important priorities in the first quarter. We launched Global Foundries, maintained our cadence of new product and platform introductions, and made solid progress on our restructuring activities. The result is a more nimble AMD, capable of achieving long-term success based on our strengths designing and integrating industry-leading computing and graphics technologies.”
Indeed, the struggling company has taken a number of steps to improve revenue flow, such as the the joint creation of Global Foundries with Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) and Mubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi. In addition, AMD unveiled several new products, including the ATI FirePro 2450 GPU and 45nm quad-core Opteron processor. The corporation also demonstrated its Fusion Render Cloud, which was designed to stream HD quality gaming and multimedia experiences to any device equipped with a web browser.
However, the company was also forced to eliminate 1100 jobs and implement “temporary” pay cuts.
“These actions, while difficult, will allow AMD to better navigate the turbulent economic conditions while protecting our core capability to execute our technology roadmaps and position AMD for long-term success,” explained a company spokesman in an emailed statement.
