AMD makes massive layoffs
Five per cent cull
AMD IS QUIETLY cutting five per cent of its workforce. Pink slips have been handed out now. The cuts are going to be across the board, not targeted at any specific group.
Whispers also say that this is because the chip maker is going to badly miss numbers this quarter, and it is taking preemptive moves to get costs under control.
Too little, too late, too badly aimed, or not aimed it seems. With the earnings in free fall, expect a press conference in a day or two to explain the problem, and how they are dealing with it via the axe.
One may have hoped that they would have done a bit more analysis to work out why they are in this pickle and axe those responsible rather than 1/20th of everyone. There is no good news from all of this, none at all. µ
Comments
Shorely dead wood!
AMD must be where the smart money is. I've seen scarse little of any other kind! Please de Jesús, don't be sending me to Héctor! amen.50% is massive
not 5%Sounds like the doom and gloom news media now.
Glenn
Analysis????
Ummm, how about the 5.4 BILLION ridiculous reasons for purchasing ATI, rather than concentrating on their 'CORE' product?That's a start.
SPARKS
AMD
The ones who messed up are the ones doing the axing!how do you layoff 5% quietly?
seriously, like all 5% of the workforce will go crying to their room?glad you axed
elementary. when mr. o over at chipzilla was swinging axe and sickle some time back, it was viewed as a positive by the "whisperers." granted a beaten-down chipzilla makes for a mammoth chimpzilla, but the act itself, may still be viewed as better late than naught.on the egalitarian issue of whose necks are worthy to surrender, perhaps chimp believes there are equal portions of deadwood, or redundancy, to be found at all levels.
How many could be kept for 7.4 mil
Hmm, if I were Hector Ruiz I'd probably be wearing a bullet proof jacket for a while. I'm kinda curious how many of the employees could've been kept if Mr. Ruiz made this year what he did back in 2000. The 7.4 mil he made last year could've probably been better spent by keeping the people employed.More focus, please
If AMD had talked to hp before, they would have at least focused on the engineers, leaving a fatter bonus for ALL managers. I suggest to take a look at hp OpenVMS Engineering. That would assure shrinkage!Good analysis
Good analysis on this - but I'm not sure why you would have had any hope that they would have done analysis on this to figure out where they should cut.I say this because it is clear that the people responsible for doing an analysis like you would have hoped for are the ones responsible for the issues... my hope it the 5% don't lose their jobs in vain and there is enough analyst outrage that the true problem (Ruiz and much of senior management) gets removed. For that matter, the board should be completely re-elected, given their gross incompetence for failing to do anything other than collect money.
A shake up is in order not a blind removal of 5% across the board...
too bad
too bad you're still employed by DAMMIT. There could have been better people than you.Ax who?
If they ax those responsible for the pickle, they won't have anyone left to run the company.Who really needs the axe
It's time for Hector to go.Disgusting
This is absolutely disgusting! Lay off the useless CEO and board of executives!How is AMD going to survive in the long run?
I just don't see how AMD can keep on losing money for much longer, especially given the tight credit environment. It doesn't seem like they have the products or roadmaps on the CPU side to pull themselves out of this slump, and being bought seems to have all kinds of license implications.What's keeping AMD going? Are they just holding out for a big payday through either their lawsuits and/or another round of government subsidies?
AMD layoffs?
1) The company has been promising cost cuts for a while, thankfully.2) It is hardly likely that Nigel Dessau would be joining if the company's prospects are turning for the worse. On the contrary, sales are picking up with new product launches.
I remember
I was in Austin when Hector moved from Motorola SPS head to working under Sanders at AMD. At the time, Austin had lots of AMD FAB workers (yes they had a FAB there at the time) and engineers (yes they had ... have engineers there) tell me what a steal they got from Motorola. I just said, "that's not what the Moto engineers say." I guess they were right.Job cuts
Seriously, any company NOT cutting at least 5% of their workforce every year is doing themselves a disservice. A company is NOT a day care center for the terminally talentless. Cutting the 5% bottom performers only helps, both morale-wise for those left, and bottom-line-wise. Why continue to pay those who aren't cutting it? Better for them to find other employment elsewhere.@regulas
@regulas: On the one hand, it's true, 5% of 14,900 total employees, is ~745 jobs...http://www.amd.com/us-en/0,,3715_14197_14208,00.html#110652
On the other hand, if you add it to the 2,000 previously laid off:
http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2006/10/12/amd-ati-to-cut-2000-jobs
And the 375 previously laid off:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127946-pg,1-RSS,RSS/article.html
That means, in the last 6 months, AMD/ATI has dumped 3,120 people. That's ~20% of the original 14,900 quoted at the AMD/ATI merger.
Why I didn't hear about that?
I'm working for Daamit. But I didn't hear any thing relate to this layoff till now. Is it a rumor?5% is nothing
Oh come on. Intel laid off 10%.The Soprano's meets AMD
AMD in Europe really looks these days as the Soprano's in reality soap but then with very bad casted actors...were the usual suspects A. Machiato & Co are in the waste management business...wasting the company's assets & human capital!AMD in the States: combination of The Simply Life and Grumpy Old Men starring Hector in both shows...
Shareholders, it's time to kick out the usual suspects before they kick the company out of the NYSE!
RIP old AMD
The reason AMD ever succeeded with a competitor like Intel was due to the front line engineers, backed by technical bosses, and not a bureaucrat in sight. Engineers helped each other and a passion for quality was the foundation for miraculous achievements. After Dirk left the technical ranks, Hector turned engineers on each other, and arrogant newcomers like Bruce Gieske and others made their power plays based on horrible ideas, the old culture was fatally extinguished. Could AMD have grown, necessarily, and maintained those old qualities? Maybe not. But AMD will never ahieve the productivity that once made it strong. I have witnessed the total trashing of many many hundreds of man years of work in the last five years due to incompetent executives and their policies destructive to productive and happy engineers. If only stock holders would ever realize that they would benefit from happy employees instead of terrified lemmings.Debunked
This was obviously an attempt by the INQ to ruin AMD's name as usual. Tacky at best. Debunked.Moving Fabs & retiring grey Teams
As my pundancy once stated Barcelona hads problems, none-the-less those teams smooth in with HOT Tech Wins, while old teams such as Barton core, now gone.Between moving Fabs about, just normal upswing is AMD Seeks 5%+ enginneers from? Tukihalem peoples or ibm equiv.
Road Maps expand as Cuts Make Room.
T. Drashek
RE: daamiter
Odds are pretty good you dont know about the layoff because you are either - 1) not high enough in the company to matter (which isnt that high) or 2) on the list to be given your 8 weeks + 1 week/yr of service.Hopefully you make it.
5% eh?
Saying axing 5% of the worse performing people to save money is reasonable. I say axe hector, he's the bottom 10% - money wise. Damn execs getting paid loads cant even tell that green is not redlayoffs indeed
yes, some layoffs happened today and the rest are yet to come.