AMD lays off 15 percent, eyes embedded push

SAN FRANCISCO--Advanced Micro Devices, staggered by a poor global consumer economy and strategic missteps, will lay off 15 percent of its employees to cut costs while undertaking an aggressive push into embedded markets to counter declining PC sales that will continue "for the foreseeable future," executives said. 

In a conference call regarding the microprocessor company's third-quarter revenues, executives said sales dropped 10 percent sequentially to $1.27 billion in the third quarter, or $157 million. AMD had previously said it expected sales  in Q3 (which closed Sept. 29) to be between and $1.38 billion and $1.4 billion, a range of 1 percent to down 3 percent sequentially.

The roughly 1,700 layoffs will save AMD $20 million in Q4 and $190 million in 2013, officials said. Overall this lowers AMD expenses by 25 percent. "We are resetting to new business model to deliver break-even results with $1.3 billion quarerly revenue" by this time next year, CEO Rory Read said, reading from a prepared statement.

Interim CFO Devinder Kumar offered little insight into where the cuts might come, other than to say "it's across all functions and globally."