Um folks.. because of the way the licencing deal between intel and amd works amd has just blown both its own feet off.

It CANT have an outside contractor make more then 20% of its cpu chips and now it wont be making any....

The Arabs did a very good business buy all the fabs (3) with 1.6 billion. very very ,cheap .
AMD did a very bad mistake selling all to the arebs , the Chinese are upset :))), I bet if AMD sell one fab or two at a public auction have got more money than that. (the Russians , Indianans have money too ).
In the future Amd will lose its license to produce chips too.(intel isn't very happy about the deal ) .
I bet next AMD president will to be a Arab one .

Hahaha, I give the remaining AMD Design Center about 2-3 years before they sell off to Private equity liquidation leaving the Foundry as the last physical remains of what was, AMD.

The foundry cost was only one of many AMD problems. $700M for the foundries represents a Humongous financial loss of billions of dollars of previous investment. Even without the foundries it will be eaten up in no time flat.

Great deal for the Arabs who've caught AMD comatose and bending over a barrel, but ultimately spells the end of what we used to know as the company formerly known as, AMD.
When Private Equity breaks up the design group I'm wondering how the Arabs will get around the regs to purchase them.

If I read this correctly, Abu is buying a 20% stake in the company for $314 million, which implies the value of AMD after the spin off is around $1.5 billion. I don't know how many shares are outstanding after the Abu stock acquisition, but $1.5 bill does not sound like an awful lot.

AMD didn't sell it's 2 fabs in Dresden.It just decided to transform them into a new company and share the property of this new company with ATIC.
AMD still has about 45% of the mew foundary with full control on the fabs.Actually ATIC is going upgrading the 2 fabs,and build a new one in NY.c.

AMD stil have full control on all it's three fabs,the only thing that happened is that AMD will share the property of the two fabs in Dresden with a foreign company that belongs to the arabian prince Hamad Bin Jasem.

This is the best thing that could ever happen to AMD.

Too bad the overpriced AMD purchase eventually forced them to this and too bad they have to rely on a foreign investor to complete the plan. I've got to say though that regardless of the board structure AMD won't be the majority shareholder and that could come back to bite them.

What about "real men have fabs" now?

- Intel Has “Serious Questions” Regarding AMD’s Fab Spin Off.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20081007150413_Intel_Has...

- AMD Confident In Ability to Produce x86 Microprocessors Despite Intel’s Doubts.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20081007174308_AMD_Confi...t_In_Ability_to_Produce_x86_Microprocessors_Desp...[bs.com]

Intel will not be pleased.

They've worked for years by both legal and illegal measures to limit AMD's access to capital, and also to limit AMD's marketshare.

The new AMD represents a serious challenge to both Nvidia and Intel.

Plus

#9...Michigan not a good place to locate because of bad workers? I'm sorry, I'm going to rebuke your claim that somehow being a part of a union makes someone a poor worker. Everybody has beefs with unions, even those people who are in them...but that doesn't make union members poor laborers - far from it. Arguably overpaid, but not poor workers.

Long live the rust belt!!

As I said after they bought ati they had to sooner or later spin off the fabs. They would have gotten more money if they had done so sooner tho.

Fact is with the econ the way it is and amd still in deep debt even after this its still likely amd will fail.

I just cannot figure out the headline.

Not quite related but I have always wondered how the companies choose the sites for their fabrication businesses. What qualities do the companies need to satisfy their site choices. I wrote our "out of touch" congressman/woman a few times to ask about a site to be in Michigan and of course never heard anything back.

It's always baffled me that TSMC is rolling in dough and never short of work, while AMD's fabs never seem to make a dollar.

This is long overdue, but should help both halves of AMD.

This will make AMD that much easier to be bought out by another company. Such as IBM, HP or even NVIDIA. Since none of them would want the foundries.

Good deal all around. AMD retains management and ownership rights to the company *and* to the FAB, and picks up a ton of investment capital at the same time. This should put the final nail in the coffin of those "AMD is doomed" rumors that some folks are so fond of...;)

Obviously, the only way for AMD to stay competitive with Intel in perpetuity is through joint ventures and collaborations with other well-heeled entities. This will pretty much guarantee AMD's presence for the long haul, imo. This is great news for consumers as it will mean not only continuing competition, but more intense competition as time moves on.

Sweet, im currently in college to major in computer engineering and maybe a minor in electrical. Once this AMD fab X4 is completed, maybe I can land a engineering job there. :D

Ruizputin is back, eh?

Best of luck with that fab company.

How does this affect the Intel-AMD cross-licensing agreements? I read somewhere that most of them had clauses that allowed Intel to void them if AMD was sold; is spinning off the foundries close enough to qualify?

If AMD goes sour, I hope the jeering intel fanboys enjoy getting the overpriced uninspired crap that will pour out for quite a few development cycles after the next. (and the general stagnation of the computer market that results)

The insane cost to even enter the cpu market means they could twiddle their thumbs for 10+ years while padding their coffers and nobody else will do a damned thing. (especially if the economy keeps flushing, no one will take any risks)

I'm no business/financial expert so I'll wait for others who are more informed to reply.

But my only question is why are they still keeping Hector Ruiz around? I'm starting to think that if this spin-off fab plan was never in the works, Ruiz would still be CEO of AMD. It seems that he only stepped down because of this move. As Chairman of this new company, what sort of authority/power does he actually have?

Intel spends more on plants and research than AMD makes in annual revenue. This AbuDabhi company is a lifeline for AMD. Hopefully they will pour the money in.

This is excellent news for AMD, it fixes their money issues, guarantees their fab growth and existence, and removes a major cost from AMD.

Now they can concentrate on designing products to make in these fabs.

I would mention marketing those products as well, but ... well maybe they can spend a few bob on that too now.