14 DAY TRIAL // The IT industry has been harsh over the past few years, forcing certain companies out of the market and others, like Advanced Micro Devices in this case, into taking radical actions to stay afloat.
Yesterday (October 12, 2012) we reported on the preliminary financial report that AMD has put together and on how it doesn't have many good things to say.
Long story short, revenues fell by 10% during the third quarter of the year, much more than the 1-3% projected initially.
We suspected that there would be consequences, but we didn't think they would be more serious than a drop in the share price. Unfortunately for those employed at Advanced Micro Devices, that is not the case.
According to an unidentified source, who spoke to AllThingD, the Sunnyvale, California-based CPU, APU and GPU maker will lay off about 30% of its workers.
The announcement will be made next week, possibly on October 18 (when AMD makes the proper, quarterly financial announcement), and is a severe jump from last year's plan, which 'only' involved 10% redundancies. The cuts will affect, for the most part, the sales and engineering department.
October 25 is the next likely date, by which time the job cuts could already be over and done with.
AMD hoped that the first round of layoffs in early 2012 would be enough for a financial rebound, but poor sales and a weak economy prevented the operating expenses savings of $118 million from achieving that (91 million Euro).
For those who want the numbers, the first series of layoffs involved 1,400 workers. This new one will increase that amount by 2,200 to 3,300.
“There are a lot of nervous people, and not a lot is getting done right now,” the source reportedly said.
AMD's workforce has presumably known about the coming of this workforce reduction for some time. Thus, we can infer that the company's management has yet to decide on who, exactly, will have to leave.