AMD up for sale?

[deadrats]

the rumors are flying after the departure of some high ranking executives, such as the CEO and COO (never a good sign when both those people leave within a month of one another) and Dell has been mentioned as a potential buyer:

Rumors are circulating that AMD is up for sale, and that Dell might be interested in purchasing the chip giant.

i know, i know, it's just a rumor, but i remember when it was "just a rumor" that ATI was up for sale and that AMD was interested in buying it and look at what happened.

honestly, considering how poorly AMD has been doing (if it wasn't for Intel giving them a crap load of cash they would have been in the red all last year), how pathetically their processors perform compared to intel's offerings and the lack of any real compelling technological advances in their processors (their apu's are still under performing and part of me thinks bulldozer will be another phenom) it's not out of the realm of possibility that AMD may go to the highest bidder.

[lordsmurf]

That could be a good move for Dell, as I don't think they're at their peak anymore either.
Interesting rumor, if nothing else.

EDIT: Yep, I was right:
http://ycharts.com/companies/DELL/profit_margin#zoom=0&comp=revenues
Revenues up, but profits down across the 10-year.
Wish I could find a 20+ year chart.
Their market share is also down the past few years, something like 10-15%

[Moontrash]

honestly, considering how poorly AMD has been doing (if it wasn't for Intel giving them a crap load of cash they would have been in the red all last year), how pathetically their processors perform compared to intel's offerings and the lack of any real compelling technological advances in their processors (their apu's are still under performing and part of me thinks bulldozer will be another phenom) it's not out of the realm of possibility that AMD may go to the highest bidder.

lol i'm guessin' your an intel guy

that sanybridge went over real well

[deadrats]

lol i'm guessin' your an intel guy

that sanybridge went over real well

you'd be guessing wrong, i'm currently running an x4 620 on an msi motherboard, i went with amd because they offered the cheapest quad cores but the sad truth is that i also have an e7400 that's capable of taking this cpu to school under some workloads and in all fairness amd's quad cores can't compare with intel's pre-i7 quad cores, it takes 6 amd cores to come close to 4 intel cores with hyper-threading.

yes, sandy bridge was a **** up for intel but that was in the chipset, if you'll recall amd actually released a cpu (the first phenom) with a bug (the TLB bug) built right into the design.

bottom line is that if AMD doesn't buck up and start bringing some compelling products to market intel will just keep running away from them.

[jman98]

I'm an IT guy and a big AMD supporter as I believe that we all benefit from Intel having a competitor. Honestly, AMD could probably use a deep pockets white knight to step in and buy them, but I don't see that being Dell. I read some arguments pro and con for Dell buying them on a tech website and I think that the bottom line is that other PC makers might shy away from using AMDs CPUs if that money goes to Dell.

Unfortunately AMD is now playing second fiddle to Intel in technology. Their brief lead a few years ago didn't last. My feeling is that AMD is unlikely to technologically leapfrog Intel just due to having less money to spend on R&D, but they could position themselves as a "more bang for less bucks" alternative to those who just want bleeding edge power and carve out a niche that way.

[jagabo]

they (AMD) could position themselves as a "more bang for less bucks" alternative

That's what AMD has done all along. Of course, that means Intel gets to set AMD's prices. Intel needs AMD as evidence that they're not a monopoly. With the exception of the high end where AMD can't compete, Intel prices their processors so that AMD can limp along, never strong enough to truly complete, but not so week that they'll die.

[redwudz]

I'm a big fan of the AMD hex core CPUs. I couldn't afford the Intel versions. I don't want to see Intel be a monopoly in the CPU business. It's bad enough with MS in the lead position for OSs, dictating 'what we want.'

[SingSing]

The Fab of AMD has already leave them, and currently spent Billions of dollar starting a fab war. Before long, most of the AMD will go under, with ATI in tow.
It is sad.

[16mmJunkie]

AMD and ATI will still be around for a long time... They still can fill the needs of most users. I don't have numbers, but only a small amount of users require high end products for use... the others just want the best to keep up with the "Jones"


As for the OP I also doubt that the Dell purchase is much more than a rumor as the mentioned above reasons.

[MJA]

I wish AMD focus on mobile chips like Nvidia did with tegra/2,and 4x soon.mobile is the future

[hech54]

I have an AMD dual core on an MSI motherboard....my first AMD machine. Just like my old Dell....never had a problem with either of them.

[Seeker47]

I agree with what redwudz and jman98 had to say about this.

Wasn't Abu Dhabi (the country) the current owner of AMD ? Pockets not deep enough there ?
What is the world coming to ?

[jagabo]

I agree with what redwudz and jman98 had to say about this.

Wasn't Abu Dhabi (the country) the current owner of AMD ? Pockets not deep enough there ?
What is the world coming to ?

The fabs were spun off with help from investors from the UAE as "Foundry Company" but AMD still holds a minority stake.

[jman98]

Was going to post more or less what jagabo did. AMD is not owned by the UAE.

[bendixG15]

Wish I could find a 20+ year chart.

Here you go LS.........