AMD worth less than amount paid for ATi

Robert Hallock 10 Dec, 2007 at 1:50pm ET Article published in Tech

Quick on the heels of the exploding brouhaha regarding the TLB errata we recently reported on, comes news that AMD is now worth less as a company than they paid for ATi. There are many reasons to blame for this:

Poor performance of the 2900 series
Abysmal performance from the Phenom
The TLB errata
Poor financial reports

And the list goes on. At a value of approximately $5bn USD, it’s $400m USD less than what was paid for ATi in July of 2006.

Comments

10 Dec 2007 ~ 1:56pm GHoosdum That's probably less than intel's advertising budget...
10 Dec 2007 ~ 3:35pm NiGHTS The market isn't being very kind to many people these days, either.
10 Dec 2007 ~ 3:52pm RADA

Thrax wrote:

Quick on the heels of the exploding brouhaha regarding the TLB errata we recently reported on, comes news that AMD is now worth less as a company than they paid for ATi. There are many reasons to blame for this:

<ul>
<li> Poor performance of the 2900 series
<li> Abysmal performance from the Phenom
<li> The TLB errata
<li> Poor financial reports
</ul>

And the list goes on. At a value of approximately $5bn USD, it's $400m USD less than what was paid for ATi in July of 2006.

....makes me wonder how long AMD can continue to operate under such conditions....

I had aways though the aquisition of ATi would come back to haunt them...

If AMD goes under we go back to a one CPU Co. & one GPU Co. world. Prices and performance will both suffer...
10 Dec 2007 ~ 4:22pm Leonardo I really wouldn't worry about AMD going away. Their corporate structure and name might be gone in a couple years, but not the entity itself. There are the tech giants in the world such as Samsung and IBM that probably wouldn't mind snatching up AMD/ATI at a fire sale. Can you imagine what either of those companies could do with AMD's technology! AMD has always had bright people and competent engineers, but seemingly has never had the corporate vision or marketing to match their forward thinking tech prowess.
10 Dec 2007 ~ 9:57pm Qeldroma I have to agree with Leo on this one. AMD and the talent ATI brings to the table is great. The thing will be retaining that talent before it is scattered to the four winds by layoffs, cancelled programs, disgruntlement, and that kind of list. If someone is going to make a move- I think they better not wait too long.
10 Dec 2007 ~ 10:29pm Leonardo

If someone is going to make a move- I think they better not wait too long.

I wonder how much tolerance the shareholders will bear for Ruiz. Certainly not all the blame falls on the CEO's shoulders, but if you look at the disasters over the past 18 months, it surely looks like strategic errors, not middle management and factory floor decisions.
11 Dec 2007 ~ 8:33am GHoosdum I think the blunders would have been much less damaging to the company if AMD were still competing against Netburst architecture.

What the company needs to do is follow nVidia's lead, when they really seem to be following Intel - nVidia followed up the horrific 5000-FX series of chips with the awesome 6000 series in very short order. Intel took many years to follow up the awful P4 with the Core series... if AMD waits as long as Intel did, there won't be much left. They're lagging behind in both markets, CPU and GPU, and they need to surpass the competition in at least one of them very soon or the company won't remain an independent entity for long.