AMD Slashes Another 500 Jobs to Save Costs

Advanced Micro Devices is eliminating another 500 jobs, including more than 150 positions at its Austin, Texas, facility, as the company looks to regain its financial standings after nearly two years of losses.

In a statement released Nov. 5, an AMD spokesman announced that the chip maker decided to slash an additional 500 jobs from its payroll. Earlier this year, AMD announced that it will eliminate 10 percent of its global work force to reduce costs and make the company more competitive against larger rival Intel. After the current cuts, AMD will now have about 15,000 employees worldwide.

The cost cutting comes just a month after AMD announced it will spin off its manufacturing division into a new company, which should save the company millions of dollars in costs. While this week’s job cuts are not directly related to the spin-off, it shows that AMD is doing all it can to save money while rebuilding its business around its core strengths of CPU and graphics design.

AMD is also eliminating underperforming parts of the company. In October, AMD announced that it had sold its Digital Television division to Broadcom for $141 million.

Michael Silverman, an AMD spokesman, wrote in an e-mail that these layoffs are aimed at helping AMD achieve its $1.5 billion “break-even” revenue point. As 2009 approaches, Silverman wrote that AMD is looking at other ways to save even more costs.

“Today’s announced headcount reduction is an unfortunate but necessary part of this process to help us align our people with the focused programs that achieve our objectives, eliminate duplication of efforts and allow us to operate more efficiently,” Silverman wrote.

“As we prepare for 2009, we will continue to assess AMD’s programs, activities and staffing needs, in order to ensure that we align with our global market realities, and set the company up for consistent profitability,” Silverman added.

In October, AMD reported another round of disappointing financial results. In the third quarter, the company reported a loss of $67 million, or 11 cents per diluted share. The company’s net revenue stood at $1.78 billion.

While AMD is cutting workers, Dell announced earlier this week that it will look to reduce costs by asking employees to take voluntary, unpaid vacations and the company will offer a series of buyouts for other workers. Dell is also starting a hiring freeze that could save additional costs.