AMD Considering Breakup, Spinoff

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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Reuters is reporting that AMD is looking into either splitting into two companies or spinning off a business to better take on Intel. The Sunnyvale-based chipmaker has engaged a consulting firm to help review options and scenarios. Thoughts?

One option under consideration is separating AMD's graphics and licensing business from its server business, which sells processors that power data centers, one of the people said.
 
This would be great for AMD and the consumer. Let a major company with tons of engineering and financial support like Samsung take over the GPU part of AMD. It may take several years before we see the fruits of this, but I really think it would be great.
 
They could spin off their Graphics division. Maybe they could call it ATI.
 
I think the discussion is the other way. I mean split off the business unit from the CPU + graphics unit and make it a new company in a similar way that their FABs became GF. I expect this is will help some of the debt and quarterly losses.
 
Yeah, this sucks. AMD isn't competitive and it seems like based on pricing and leaked benchmarks, even their first generation of HBM GPUs that are really expensive to produce due to the huge die size and newness of the HBM interface isn't the vast improvement people had hoped for with it being like within a few percentage points of NVidia stuff. It looks like computing is just gonna go Wintel with NV GPUs if you want to play games. Gee, that's gonna make a really exciting industry full of hard hitting product reviews of the two hardware monopolies running the one company's monopoly OS. :(
 
An AMD spokeswoman said no such project was in the works at this time and reiterated the company's commitment to the long-term strategy it laid out in May at its analyst meeting.

Weird quote right ? Not so much ..

On the launch of their HBM project AMD will split up to combat Intel. What is this nonsense?

Intel controls the x86 market unless they find people with billions of dollars and a (conservative estimation) time of 10 years to be able compete with Intel on the x86 market is rather far fetched.

Can we get a spin on this again in next months and we'll see Samsung buying AMD again...
 
You don't compete with bigger companies by getting smaller ... the only way a split makes sense is if they think that no single company would buy them as is ... if they think the graphics and server groups have interested individual buyers (who are large companies like Samsung, Lenovo, IBM, etc) then splitting the two apart makes sense (to facilitate the mergers) ... however, if they split them apart without getting a merger they will relegate themselves to extended 2nd tier status (from a marketshare and profitability standpoint)
 
They lose x86 so the story itself is rather stupid , the agreement between Intel and AMD has certain stipulations which prevent certain things as being bought.

So when an article says they want to split up to battle Intel you should know what this story is about.
 
currently amd is very integrated all the major console players are running amd's chips cause they are a one stop shop. i do not see this changing in the future however i do see the possibility of amd going private and pulling a dell as it will relieve the quarterly pressures they are facing.
 
currently amd is very integrated all the major console players are running amd's chips cause they are a one stop shop. i do not see this changing in the future however i do see the possibility of amd going private and pulling a dell as it will relieve the quarterly pressures they are facing.

And how would they become private if they don't have any money?
 
If true and such a plan were implemented, AMD's x86 business probably isn't going to survive for long. Graphics and licensing = GPU and console APU business, which is the only portion of AMD's business (usually) running in the black.

I'm not sure who would want the x86 business besides a company like VIA, and even then it would have to be priced cheap. If the x86 unit dies, there will probably be many more companies that want to buy IP.
 
This is fantastic news. With the driver issues, and new products coming out without DVI, HDMI 2.0 one can only wonder if a move like this would help them to properly re-focus and get the help they so desperately need.
 
I would be concern about the financial implications of spinning off ATI though. I agree that it would be great if it could ensure that ATI doesn't get drag down along with AMD, it's really one of the most competitive division they have.

But high performance GPU is a very expansive market to be competitive in, it requires a lot of expensive development work. It's hard to see how ATI could afford to go on their own without some financial backing by a larger company.
 
Having ATI branded videocards back would be epic. AMD branding never sat right with me. I realize that makes no sense.
 
Having ATI branded videocards back would be epic. AMD branding never sat right with me. I realize that makes no sense.

I never understood why they could not use both ATI and AMD in branding their gpu.
 
This is fantastic news. With the driver issues, and new products coming out without DVI, HDMI 2.0 one can only wonder if a move like this would help them to properly re-focus and get the help they so desperately need.

Maybe for those having "driver issues", (I haven't), and feel that the lack of HDMI 2.0 will negatively impact more than a fraction of total users, (I don't), one might feel this is potentially positive.

But, doesn't it seem obvious that the folks writing the drivers, and the folks who squeezed the trigger on the decision to forego HDMI 2.0, would be still doing what they do at the "new" ATi?
 
They should drop the server part.. majority of Servers use Intel.. AMD is kept alive by video cards and consumer CPU's.. I do want to keep AMD around, they completely help the tech industry with innovation... Mantle API, memory bus controller on CPU, integrated graphics on a CPU, Freesync, first to use Tesselation, HBM on graphics, and the list goes on... Intel basically follows AMD's lead in Innovation
 
I miss those ATI Radeon TV Wonder cards. I've never had more fun with a video card in my life.
 
Run company into ground, sell off what's left and the board walk away with a few million in each of their pockets.

At this late stage in the game it's what I'd do.
 
Maybe for those having "driver issues", (I haven't), and feel that the lack of HDMI 2.0 will negatively impact more than a fraction of total users, (I don't), one might feel this is potentially positive.

But, doesn't it seem obvious that the folks writing the drivers, and the folks who squeezed the trigger on the decision to forego HDMI 2.0, would be still doing what they do at the "new" ATi?


Usually when I see people's machines that have driver issues (plus those that claim to be hardcore gaming addicts) I'm not surprised.

Their machines are usually the messiest and most adware/junkware riddled shitboxes you could find. They just cant get enough icons in their notification area etc.

All the torrent and media playback software you could ever get from CNET (mmm clean) and much much more.

It ain't the drivers in most cases...
 
Finally AMD admits their purchase of ATI weighed down both companies.

i think buying ATI was the best thing that happened to AMD. it lets them build APUs.

poor management and sub par releases is what screwed AMD. they got nothing to compete against intel

if anything their APUs are what is keeping them alive thanks to the consoles and they arnt doing that bad in the GPU department.

CPU is what is weighing them down
 
They should drop the server part.. majority of Servers use Intel.. AMD is kept alive by video cards and consumer CPU's.. I do want to keep AMD around, they completely help the tech industry with innovation... Mantle API, memory bus controller on CPU, integrated graphics on a CPU, Freesync, first to use Tesselation, HBM on graphics, and the list goes on... Intel basically follows AMD's lead in Innovation

AMD depends on custom chip business when intel turns their clients down. AMD makes a decent buck from those
 
AMD, welcome your new Samsung overlords.

If only some really rich company in the USA could buy AMD's division which is not in competition with Intel so it's not a legal matter.

Micron actually has the cash but it would be a gamble.
 
If true...
;)

AMD is denying the Reuters claims:
Updated June 21, 1720 EST (2220 BST): AMD Spokesperson Sarah Youngbauer issued a statement over the weekend denying Reuters' report. She wrote, "AMD provided official confirmation that we have not hired an outside agency to explore spinning-off/splitting the company... We remain committed to the long-term strategy we laid out for the company in May at our Financial Analyst Day, which encompasses all parts of the business."
 
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