AMD's quarterly revenue topped estimates but its forecast
for the current quarter fell short as it struggles with
falling PC sales and consumers' growing preferences for
smartphones and tablets.
Like rival Intel, AMD is trying to refocus its business.
AMD posted fourth-quarter revenue of $1.16 billion,
compared to $1.69 billion in the year-ago quarter.
In its report on Tuesday, AMD estimated revenue in the
current first quarter would fall 9 percent from the fourth
quarter, plus or minus 3 percent. The mid-point of AMD's
revenue forecast is about $1.056 billion.
Rory Read, president and CEO of AMD, said Tuesday that the
company continues to make progress on its strategy for
returning to profitability after the company reported
fourth quarter sales that beat analysts' expectations but
said it expects first quarter sales to be below estimates.
"We made progress in the fourth quarter delivering on our
commitments, managing expense and cash, and beginning to
transform AMD for long term growth and profitability,"
Read told analysts on a conference call following the
fourth quarter report. Read said AMD increased its cash
flow, reduced excess inventory and lowered operating
expenses in the fourth quarter "in the face of a difficult
market."
But Read acknowledged that AMD's full-year results fell
short of expectations as a tough economy hurt PC sales.
AMD 's goal is to reduce its operating expenses by 25
percent from early 2012 levels by the third quarter, and
to return to profitability and positive cash flow by the
second half of this year, he said.
The company expects to PC market to remain slugish in the
first half of 2013.
AMD plans to introduce several new graphics chips and
processors in the first half of 2013, Read said. "We have
the right strategy and a new set of products coming to
market in 2013," Read said.
Read added AMD enjoyed significant growth in sales of
SeaMicro dense servers in the fourth quarter, driven by
large-scale cloud data center wins.
Read also highlighted AMD's recent design wins at a new
customer, Vizio, which he said were based on the graphics
performance and long battery life of AMD's accelerated
processing units (APUs), which combine graphics and
microprocessing capability. The first Vizio products
featuring AMD APUs will be two touch-based ultrathin
notebook PCs and one tablet, he said.