14 DAY TRIAL // Advanced Micro Devices managed to finish the fourth quarter of 2013 with positive finances, succeeding in scoring a small net income (profit) instead of losing more money than it made.
It's a very good thing for its image, considering that the first three quarters of the year were so hard on the company that they prevented 2013 from being profitable overall.
In fact, the Sunnyvale, California-based company incurred a loss of $83 million / €61.23 million.
We probably shouldn't focus on the bad news though. The year turned out pretty well considering, and the difference between Q4 2013 and Q4 2012 is like night and day.
After all, during October-December of 2012, AMD lost $473 million / €348.
The main reason why AMD has recovered is the semi-custom SoC line and the graphics products released and sold throughout the past year. A 38% increase on-year in revenue may not have been altogether expected, but it was a welcome change.
"Strong execution of our strategic transformation plan drove significant revenue growth and improved profitability in the fourth quarter," said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO.
"The continued ramp of our semi-custom SoCs and leadership graphics products resulted in a 38 percent revenue increase from the year ago quarter. Our focus in 2014 is to deliver revenue growth and profitability for the full year by leveraging our differentiated IP to drive success in our targeted new markets and core businesses."
For those who want more numbers, the revenue was of $1.59 billion / €1.17 billion, the earnings were of $89 million / €65 million and the yearly loss for the whole year was of $83 million / €61 million.
In 2014, ongoing sales of game consoles will continue to help AMD make money, since AMD tech is used by both Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox now. PC graphics will continue to contribute, though general PC demand is dropping, and AMD might even score some tablet SoC orders.