AMD Hires Bank to Explore Options

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According to Reuters, AMD has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co to explore its options, including a potential sale.

"AMD's board and management believe that the strategy the company is currently pursuing to drive long-term growth by leveraging AMD's highly-differentiated technology assets is the right approach to enhance shareholder value," spokesman Drew Prairie said.
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I'm honestly confused whether this is good or really really bad. :confused:
It doesn't get more shady and cut throat than JPMorgan.
 
Just jiggle the handle. The flush works fine. :p

Well, yeah, this is about the point we expected this to happen. I think AMD will go in pieces. Graphics to one group, real estate to another, and processor IP to another. AMD is worth less than its debts so I doubt any group would be interested in purchasing it whole.
 
This is horrendously bad. If AMD does sell itself off, Intel would be the only option left period even if you weren't aiming for high end. Talking to JP Morgan about business options is basically throwing in the towel.
 
Evil said:
This is horrendously bad. If AMD does sell itself off, Intel would be the only option left period even if you weren't aiming for high end. Talking to JP Morgan about business options is basically throwing in the towel.
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No it is more like bending over and asking for them to towel you off when they are done. Won't happen. jp organ won't even give amd a reacharound.

sad news but expected.
 
Can someone that actively trades explain to me why AMD spiked today when there's news like this coming out? Sounds bad, stock goes up, I go :confused:.
 
Heh. They didn't go where the market was heading quick enough, and they got outpaced in their home territory. It's been bad since the first Core ix chips were launched by Intel and the iPhone brought smartphones into the limelight.
 
MasonD said:
Can someone that actively trades explain to me why AMD spiked today when there's news like this coming out? Sounds bad, stock goes up, I go :confused:.
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speculative buying based on hopes that the news leads to a purchase at a higher than currently valued stock price...
 
IIRC, they had an ARM license but sold it to Qualcomm. I don't know if they can get another, but I'm probably wrong on that.
 
I see IBM buying AMD. They have the cash and AMD has the technology they would need to compete with INTEL. It would be very cheap overall for IBM and they still produce chips, just at a low scale. They also would benefit with GPU part of AMD, and would use the fusion tech with servers in mind. I could be wrong, but that is what I see happening soon.
 
Damn.. I was thinking when the new consoles started AMD was going to make some bank selling all those APU's....

At the rate there going they might not be in business long enough to get those out the door :eek:
 
Gideon said:
I see IBM buying AMD. They have the cash and AMD has the technology they would need to compete with INTEL. It would be very cheap overall for IBM and they still produce chips, just at a low scale. They also would benefit with GPU part of AMD, and would use the fusion tech with servers in mind. I could be wrong, but that is what I see happening soon.
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Why would IBM want to get back into that business ... the consulting and systems work they do makes them much more money ... if AMD could be gotten cheap enough it might make a good buy for Microsoft ... they already use the hardware in their gaming side and it would give them some diversity from the software side ... they certainly have the cash and credit to make the purchase also
 
kbrickley said:
Why would IBM want to get back into that business ... the consulting and systems work they do makes them much more money ... if AMD could be gotten cheap enough it might make a good buy for Microsoft ... they already use the hardware in their gaming side and it would give them some diversity from the software side ... they certainly have the cash and credit to make the purchase also
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MS wouldn't get the cross-licensing agreement with Intel, rendering the x86 license useless.

I've pointed this out prior to pxc who was mistaken as to how this works, but he was right in that anyone can go out and start making x86 chips but that doesn't make them viable nor competitive. x86 is tied to a massive list of IP and ISAs that are required to make a modern processor. nVidia tried this and they were declined flat-out by Intel so they had to go ARM, and that's why we have Tegra SoCs and project Denver. In short, that x86 license is utterly useless and the cross-licensing agreement with Intel is void as soon as it changes hands.

Whatever AMD may be looking to sell or other tech corporations are looking to buy, that x86 license is being avoided like the plague.
 
Not trying to troll this but...

I cannot see any large tech company (IBM, MS, Apple even) buying AMD. When a company is bought everything goes with it. How much unspoken dead weight is there really floating around. The bright spot has been the remnants of the ATI graphics group. The CPU side is pretty much lagging behind which I think everyone reading this could agree with.

If a MS or Apple bought AMD, they would first have to deal with the debt that comes with it. Second deal with any IP rights or tech associated with CPUs and Intel. Third. AMD would need a huge shot in the arm when it comes to getting their CPU tech in line for a more competitive position.

Another issue to think about it is the anti competitiveness of the deal. Everyone here is saying Intel would be the only kid on the block. If AMD was to be purchased by let's say Microsoft, how is this considered competitive when MS could in theory make their product (example Windows 8) more compatible with AMD processors than Intel. Yes I know the cross IP rights should negate this. As for MS investing the money to buy AMD would be a very expensive move just to have it for an gaming console. It would not be a smart move in my book.

AMD will probably be dissected into smaller business units for sell off. ATI might rise again.
 
This is sad to see. I wonder how many tens of millions JPM are charging for this 'consult' while they figure out how to sell off AMD's assets so they (JPM) can make the most profit off the deal. Vultures.
 
Please let Via buyout AMD and then re-introduce the Cyrix processor lol. I'm ready to go retro in this metro environment.
 
Zion Halcyon said:
Say hello even more gaudy prices from intel...
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Why do you guys always say this.

Its so far from the truth its not even funny.

Intel competes with intel and their previous gen stuff.

AMD hasn't been a worthy competitor since the Athlon 64.

So those stupid comments about prices going up the day amd is out of business is nonsense. Intel has to make sure there share holders are happy and they demand profit which means the tick tock must keep going regardless of if AMD is around or not.
 
Gideon said:
I see IBM buying AMD. They have the cash and AMD has the technology they would need to compete with INTEL. It would be very cheap overall for IBM and they still produce chips, just at a low scale. They also would benefit with GPU part of AMD, and would use the fusion tech with servers in mind. I could be wrong, but that is what I see happening soon.
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IBM got out of the client pc business for a reason why the hell would they buy amd to compete with intel who has x86 on lock!

This makes no sense at all.
 
cdr_74_premium said:
IIRC, they had an ARM license but sold it to Qualcomm. I don't know if they can get another, but I'm probably wrong on that.
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Intel still has an arm license. Last year the company reiterated that. Intel used to have a design license, but sold it off with the division years ago.

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IBM isn't buying AMD. IBM got out of the PC business a while ago. I could see Apple buying AMD's x86 IP. Intel wouldn't be allowed to purchase it.

The wsj had an article a couple of hours ago with AMD stating it isn't for sale / doesn't have a buyer. It did say AMD is investigating selling off its IP. That may answer one question of how AMD would manage 2 separate architectures with a shrinking workforce. It doesn't expect to if it dumps x86. :p
 
MasonD said:
Can someone that actively trades explain to me why AMD spiked today when there's news like this coming out? Sounds bad, stock goes up, I go :confused:.
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There's a phrase, "Buy on the rumor, sell on the fact." That's speculative investing at its core. And that's exactly what is happening here. If this is in fact true and comes out expect AMD's stock to divebomb like a lead balloon filled with the dust of neutron stars shortly thereafter.

It will be very sad to see AMD parted out and sold off though. The possibility of another company buying up the processor division and somehow talking Intel into another cross-licensing agreement seems about as likely to me as Apple opening up their patent portfolio and telling the world, "Have at it." The only way I could see that happening is if governments worldwide immediately went into litigation against Intel, and that is a lot more likely of a scenario I think, even if it is still unlikely.
 
dammit! I just know I'm gonna (sooner than later) regret NOT having bought a bunch of AMD stock at this point in time :mad:
 
Unfortunately no one can compete with Intel's aggressive technology road maps. IBM's 22nm is months away from production and TSMC although at smaller nodes than 32nm won't hit the same power/performance numbers Intel can. AMD can't compete simply because they can't keep up. The only glimmer I see is maybe Intel will buy the Ati division and get a decent GPU design. I could only imagine the performance leap we would see with a real GPU design integrated in chip on Intel technology. Would be bad for nvidia but it might run crysis.
 
I'm with whomever said China will buy it as AMD would be perfect for them. They don't have to sell chips to the rest of the world. All they would want is all of AMD's designs so they can progress even faster.
 
If amd sells off the graphics for the 5 billion they bought it for, stock price would jump 3x maybe.

but then how would they continue making their apu's if the cpu division and graphics are separated?
 
dr.kevin said:
If amd sells off the graphics for the 5 billion they bought it for, stock price would jump 3x maybe.
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ha ha ha ha ha

AMD paid (um, borrowed) over $6 billion to purchase ATI. AMD then sold off various pieces of ATI for (low) pennies on the dollar, and also wrote down a significant portion of the core discrete graphics business, admitting having way overpaid for it.

It is interesting though. How much could AMD get for the graphics division now? The market values AMD, server, desktop and discrete graphics pretty low. The high debt gives AMD essentially a negative value, as it's been for years. Sell off the parts, not have enough to pay off debts. That's where AMD is now. IMO it's hard to argue that AMD could get over $500 million for the graphics division. That would take the buyer 5-10 years to recoup the investment, depending how the unit fares with such a large shake-up as being purchased and directed by the new owners.
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
Why do you guys always say this.

Its so far from the truth its not even funny.

Intel competes with intel and their previous gen stuff.

AMD hasn't been a worthy competitor since the Athlon 64.

So those stupid comments about prices going up the day amd is out of business is nonsense. Intel has to make sure there share holders are happy and they demand profit which means the tick tock must keep going regardless of if AMD is around or not.
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Because we remember what Intel prices were like before AMD arose. When AMD created the K5, it was a piece of junk compared to Intel. If you think Intel out performs AMD now, the K5's were far worse back then. Then again, Intel wanted $1k for a middle of the road CPU, while the K5 was dirt cheap.

When the K6-2 was introduced, they brought 3DNow which gave it good competition again Intel chips. Given the application made good use of 3DNow.

If history isn't a good enough reason, then basic economics will do. If Intel is the only X86 chip you can get, then they can gouge the prices. Who's to stop them? They're run by good samaritan's?

AMD did good with the Athlon, Athlon XP, and Athlon 64, but after that it all went down hill. The Bulldozer chip killed them, but it's not like they can't recover. Just hope that Apple or Microsoft doesn't end up buying them up. If they do, I hope Nvidia makes a desktop Tegra chip and motherboards.
 
Zion Halcyon said:
Say hello even more gaudy prices from intel...
Click to expand...

I think this hasn't been a major concern for awhile now. Intel has been competing with itself in the performance segment for a long time, and AMD have admitted that they are no longer trying to compete there. The CPU segment pretty much belongs to Intel.

The real concern now is about AMD surviving as a company. They shifted their focus to the mobile segment and the APU thing, assuming its more profitable there and hopefully it helps them stay afloat.

If this rumor is true, then sadly their plans may not be working out as expected.
 
Microsoft should buy them and then they can design their own tablet's in-house. Surface 2.0, etc. The rumored Xbox 7" tablet is supposed to have an AMD chip in it anyway.
 
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