AMD is laying off about 500 employees, or 5 percent of its global workforce of more than 9,000, as the Sunnyvale company struggles along with its peers in the PC chip industry.
The chipmaker said in a regulatory filing Thursday that as part of its restructuring plan, it will outsource certain IT services and application development. The job cuts come on top of about 700 layoffs AMD announced in October.
The company is not saying where this round of slashing will occur, spokesman Drew Prairie told SiliconBeat in an email. But he said the impact in engineering ranks was lower than in other groups as we continue to invest in the teams working on future products. He would not disclose where the previous cuts were made.
AMD s future has been the subject of much speculation, including recent talk about a possible breakup or sale. In July, when it reported a 35 percent year-over-year drop in second-quarter sales and a gloomy third-quarter forecast, its stock got clobbered — just like what happened after its first-quarter earnings report. AMD shares are up more than 2 percent to $1.77 today, but they are down about 46 percent since February despite occasional sharp increases because of takeover rumors.
Intel, AMD s much bigger rival, is also facing challenges. The Santa Clara chipmaker announced layoffs over the summer, including more than 300 jobs in Santa Clara and Folsom, Pete Carey reported. Troy Wolverton wrote recently about the environment longtime PC chip companies are navigating amid the rise of mobile: In healthy, growing markets, there s typically room for both smaller companies and dominant players to thrive. But that doesn t seem to be the case now.
AMD s latest moves are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2016. The company expects to take a restructuring charge of $42 million in the third quarter. It expects to save $9 million in 2015 and $58 million in 2016.
Photo of AMD s headquarters from Associated Press
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