- Friday, 27 November 2009
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Never let it be said that facts will get in the way of a fun story - Mike Magee
AMD burns a billion dollars
CHIP OUTFIT AMD said last week that it had lost close to a billion of dollars down the back of its sofa.
"The sofa's too big," a spoke in the wheel said. "We dunno where it went."
The firm thought tellies and handheld gadgets were The Way Forward and that flogging bits and bobs to fit in these gadgets would be profitable. It hasn't been.
It spent money firing people and trying to make investments but these decisions have also proved expensive.
"We know we had the wonga around here somewhere. But since we bought the big sofa we've had trouble finding anything," the spoke spluttered.
Investors expecting some good news when the chip firm reveals what it's been up to for the past quarter should brace themselves, if a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is anything to go by.
Hacks at Eweek had a ferret through the filing and wrote about it here.
It looks like the firm will hold a fire sale of some old bits and pieces to see if it can claw back some of the dough. At least enough to pay CEO Hector Ruiz' bonuses.
He's been banging on about about being asset light for a while now. Maybe he'll soon say what he means by that.
But the sofa's staying put for now, it seems. It can be hard work running a company. And losing a bit of small change down between the cushions is a small price to pay for having somewhere to rest one's butt when waddling between meetings. ยต
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RUN FOR THE HILLS! Converting a useless intangible asset into a potentially useful tax loss is obviously a sign of the AMD apocalypse. All hail our Intel overlords! 

OK, so a little of that loss is cash, but less than they're getting for selling their old 200mm kit. But writing down that goodwill while they still can strikes me as good tax management more than anything else.
What the hell. A billion here; a billion there. Pretty soon they're get into real money.
Those carry-forwards are only good if AMD expects to make money, otherwise they expire and they're left with nothing.
I suppose the effect of this loss is really dependent on how much real money was lost. A firm can take an accounting loss without much trouble, and indeed, many companies are profitable up until the day they go out of business.
That sofa could do with a new hide for reupholstering, for ever, for everyone.
Okay-kay-kay-kayyy, G's up, Lil Scrappy, I got money watch me, rise to the top, My sh!t gon' sell, yo' sh!t gon' flop. I got money, money in the bank. What, what, what happened to the bank, yo, what happened to the money happened to the bank. Who's not easy being green, now? I said, I said asset lite. Bud lite, Miller lite, Green lite, Money lite. Never mind me Red.
Thats enough dosh to put a meal in front of 1 billion people.
Google is really positioning a sofa ad below this article...
Now I know why I had to represent so many white collar criminals,they don't understand that there laws against kickbacks and price fixing. Accounting Investor has seemed to forget that AMD holds THE ticket for the grand prize in the Sherman Act Treble Damages lottery. Losses will be multiplied by THREE and then AMD has a lien on all of Intels assets. $5-6billion turns in to $20 billion time interest is added. Mikey Dell's testimony has already fried Intel's butt on the exclusive use kickbacks. Intel if they want to appeal will have to post a bond equal to the entire judgment. Then there is possible criminal action against the officers of Intel under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for the exclusive use pricing in Germany and SKorea. SK has already convicted Intel so Intel is toast . Yes AMD is going to need the tax carry forward as Intel's legal position is very weak and with a Democrat in the White House who espouses acceptance of responsibility things could look like MS's mess before W took the white House.
Wouldn't it be nice if the English could actually #$%^ing spoke normal English!

Reading half the article it felt like the person who wrote this had the maturity level of a 5th grader.

I don't want to be a griefer here but ca'mon!
"Thats enough dosh to put a meal in front of 1 billion people."

Why it's enough money to fund the Iraq war for 3 days(not counting the interest, the effect on the oil price, veterans health care and disabillity compensation etc.).
is they'd better put out a truly useful proc. The only people buying phenoms right now are suckers and fanbois.

I'm sorry, but the chip sucks. When you're brand new, top of the line, chip get's spanked by the competitor's year old entry level of the same type it's time to shuffle the engineering and executive positions. Of course the fanbois will curse me for the truth, but since Core 2 came out DAMMIT's been sucking wind.

I liked that couple of years when the A64 was released and Intel was scrambling like mad to compete (and flat out couldn't). Trick is, it's really gone right now.