AMD Thinks It Did Worse Than Predicted in the Second Quarter

A few months back, Advanced Micro Devices believed its second quarter would bring it more money than the first, but only now does it realize how wrong it was.

The revenue for the April-June period would rise by 3%. That was the forecast for the quarter, and though the company did account for a possibility of weaker sales, it did not actually expect a drop.

The first quarter may have proven more lucrative than usual, but it was still supposed to be, as all first quarters before it, the slow season. It comes with the territory of following immediately after the fund-draining holiday shopping season.

Nevertheless, AMD expected its revenue to either stay flat or grow by up to 3%, not sharply drop.

According to a new press release from the Sunnyvale, California-based IT firm, the final tally could show a decline of as much as 11%, sequentially.

The latter half of the quarter is largely responsible for it. Chips sold far less in China and Europe than they were supposed to, for one, and the OEM business isn't exactly flourishing either.

At least, the gross margin will be in line with previous guidance. Also, operating expenses will be 8% less than the projected $605 million / €491 million. Tightly controlling expenses turned out to be a viable tactic.

Advanced Micro Devices will hold a conference call with financial analysts on July 19, 2012, after the market closes. We should have more figures then (the total revenue, profits, etc.).

In the meantime, the CPU, GPU and APU maker will push forward all its product plans, such as the dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990 / HD 7970 X2 and new A-Series / E-Series APUs.

The only concern left is in regards to 28nm chip supply, but despite all the rumors about shortages lasting until 2013, AMD does not have too hard a life, certainly not enough to consider looking for other suppliers.