AMD Could Lay Off up to 30% of Workforce

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Unnamed sources are telling multiple publications that AMD may lay off a significant portion of its workforce. The chip maker’s profits have been down lately, and it is forecasting another meager quarter.

“According to sources familiar with the company’s plans, (they asked not to be identified), AMD will announce next week that it will cut between 20 percent and 30 percent of its employees, which, given AMD’s headcount of about 11,100 workers, would amount to between 2,200 and 3,300 jobs,” reported Arik Hesseldahl for All Things D. “The cuts, the sources said, will affect employees involved in engineering and sales, groups of employees that have been spared in previous rounds of cuts. Additionally, these people, who are familiar with the company’s operations, suggest that the cuts will be deep enough as to indicate that AMD may be forced to scale back some of its product offerings.”

A source told Bloomberg the cuts would be shallower—between 10 and 20 percent of AMD’s workforce. Bloomberg cited Wedbush Securities analyst Betsy Van Hees as saying, “With PC demand being so weak, we don’t think the company has any choice but to do some considerable cost-cutting measures.” She added that a 10 to 20 percent workforce reduction “aligned with what we were hearing from our industry checks as well.”

CNET’s Shara Tibken added, “AMD may announce the move — its second big staff cut in the past year — as soon as next week. It reports quarterly earnings Thursday.”

Kevin Parrish from Tom’s Hardware noted, “News of the job cuts arrive after AMD took a tumble in the stock market on Friday. Shares dropped 14.4 percent to $2.74 by the end of the day after the company said on Thursday that it expects third-quarter sales to fall 10-percent from the second quarter. AMD blamed the drop in sales on a weaker-than-expected demand for all of its major product segments. Previously AMD said third quarter 2012 revenue would only decrease 1-percent, plus or minus 3-percent, sequentially.”