skynet

http://rss.com.com/2100-1001-981036....feed&subj=news

---
AMD misses on fourth-quarter earnings


By John G. Spooner
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 16, 2003, 2:30 PM PT


Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday reported a larger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss, despite revenue from processor shipments rising by 60 percent from the preceding period.
The chipmaker posted a quarterly loss of $854 million, or $2.49 per share, including restructuring charges. Revenue for the quarter, which ended Dec. 29, was $686 million, up 35 percent sequentially from the third quarter.

Before charges, AMD lost $235 million, or 68 cents per share, for the quarter. During the same period a year earlier, the company lost $15 million, or 5 cents per share. Analysts had expected AMD to post a loss of 42 cents per share on revenue of $683 million, according to FirstCall.



The chipmaker also missed its own expectations for the quarter by a hair. In December, the company had increased its projected revenue for the quarter to about $700 million. But the chipmaker had originally predicted only a 20 percent increase in revenue for the quarter.


AMD said that although the numbers were tough to swallow, during the quarter it saw double-digit increases in revenue from both of its major product lines--PC processors and flash memory--and also raised $400 million in cash and lowered projected debts for 2003.

The company, which has been working to burn off inventories of its older chips in the market, saw increases for both its processor unit shipments and prices during the quarter. It sold greater numbers of desktop chips with high model numbers, like the Athlon XP 2800+, and more notebook Athlon XPs. The result was a jump in processor revenue from $262 million in the third quarter to $420 million in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, flash memory revenue rose by 15 percent to $217 million over the same time.

"As projected, we saw increased PC processor and flash memory sales in the fourth quarter," Robert Rivet, AMD's CFO, said in a statement. "We executed on our plan to align AMD PC processor inventory in the supply chain."

Looking ahead to early 2003, the company expects sell pricier chips in larger numbers, allowing it to grow its first-quarter processor revenue. The richer mix, AMD predicts, will result in first-quarter revenue that stays flat or increases slightly from the fourth quarter's $683 million.

The chipmaker expects to begin realizing some of the benefits of a cost-cutting plan during the second quarter.

For all of 2002, AMD recorded revenue of $2.7 billion and a loss of $1.3 billion, or $3.81 per share, after charges. Excluding charges, it lost $683 million or $2 per share.

Analysts had expected the company to lose $1.73 per share and record revenue of $2.7 billion for the year, according to FirstCall.

---

Glad I don't have any stock in AMD, then again, I have no stocks.

Grimm

I expect that retooling to produce .13 micron pocessors had a lot to do with it.