AMD To Slash 10% of Its Workforce, 1400 Jobs
AMD says it’s slashing jobs from all across its global workforce. Due to the redundancies, the company should save $10 million yet in 2011 and $200 million in 2012 in operational savings. AMD plans to reinvest that cash into its low power, emerging markets, and cloud initiatives.
The “reorganization” is slated to cost AMD $101 million in 2011 and another $4 million in 2012. Most of those employees are losing their jobs in the fourth quarter of 2011.
In a press release, Rory Read, AMD president and CEO (pictured), said, "Reducing our cost structure and focusing our global workforce on key growth opportunities will strengthen AMD's competitiveness and allow us to aggressively pursue a balanced set of strategic activities designed to accelerate future growth. The actions we are taking are designed to improve our ability to consistently address the needs of our global customer base and stake leadership positions in lower power, emerging markets and the cloud."
It's a dark day for the company and more than a few of the long-time veterans we're close with over there are no longer with AMD. In fact, we've heard from our good friend, Pat Moorehead, Corporate Fellow and CVP in the Strategy Group at AMD, that he has moved on to new opportunities.
We wish the best of luck to Pat and all who are moving on from AMD. AMD's official release can be found here but here's the gist...
Operational Savings of More Than $200 Million in 2012 Designed to Accelerate Future Growth in Lower Power, Emerging Markets and the Cloud
SUNNYVALE, CA, Nov 03, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) --
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced a restructuring plan and implementation of operational efficiency initiatives designed to strengthen the company's competitive positioning. AMD expects that these combined actions will create a more competitive cost structure and rebalance the company's global workforce skillsets, helping AMD to continue delivering industry-leading products while improving productivity, reducing time-to-market and better aligning with key industry trends that are expected to drive growth.
"Reducing our cost structure and focusing our global workforce on key growth opportunities will strengthen AMD's competitiveness and allow us to aggressively pursue a balanced set of strategic activities designed to accelerate future growth," said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO. "The actions we are taking are designed to improve our ability to consistently address the needs of our global customer base and stake leadership positions in lower power, emerging markets and the cloud."
AMD expects that the restructuring plan will result in operational savings, primarily in operating expenses, of approximately $10 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 and $118 million in 2012, primarily through a reduction of its global workforce by approximately 10% and the termination of existing contractual commitments. The workforce reduction will occur across all functions globally and is expected to be substantially completed by the end of the first quarter of 2012. Based on anticipated savings from the restructuring plan, AMD expects fourth quarter 2011 operating expenses will be approximately $610 million.