AMD has confirmed that it will be cutting some 500 jobs.
The company said that the cuts would be distributed equally throughout its operations as a general cost-cutting measure and no one unit was being targeted with the cuts. The 500 job losses account for roughly three per cent of AMD's total workforce.
News of the layoffs is the latest in string of bad news for AMD as well as the technology industry as a whole. Businesses throughout the IT and consumer electronics sector have been cutting jobs in anticipation of economic turbulence in the coming months.
AMD is also still trying to recover from its self-inflicted economic troubles. Following its acquisition of graphics card specialist ATI in late 2006 for $5.4bn, AMD's fortunes took a turn for the worst.
Financial impact from the ATI buy coupled with a delay in the development of new chips allowed rival Intel to surge ahead in the market and sent AMD into a financial tailspin which has included eight consecutive quarters of financial loss, the resignation of chief executive Hector Ruiz, and finally the decision to spin off its fabrication operations in an effort to shed mounting debts.
The move is also the second round of layoffs AMD has conducted this year. In April, the company was forced to cut some 1,600 employees as part of a restructuring plan.
Source : http://www.vnunet.com/
