AMD caught cold by pace of PC market change

Vendor to axe 15 per cent of staff as sales nosedive and losses continue

More than one in seven of AMD's staff face the chop before the year is out as the chip vendor restructures its business in response to sliding sales and continuing losses.

After cutting 10 per cent of its workforce over the winter, AMD announced last night it will cull a further 15 per cent of its 11,700 staff in its current quarter.

The chip giant last night reported a 25 per cent year-on-year plunge in Q3 sales as it admitted it had been caught cold by the pace of change in the industry. Net losses hit $157m (£98m).

AMD's latest bout of restructuring is designed to save it about $20m next quarter and about $190m in 2013, with most of that coming from job cuts.

The strategy is designed to help AMD capitalise on growth opportunities for products outside of the traditional PC market, which declined by about eight or nine per cent in Q3 according to Gartner and IDC figures.

The New York-listed firm hopes its new leaner structure will allow it to break even on $1.3bn of quarterly revenue by Q3 of next year.

AMD chief executive Rory Read said: "The PC industry is going through a period of very significant change that is impacting both the ecosystem and AMD.

"It is clear that the trends we knew would re-shape the industry are happening at a much faster pace than we anticipated. As a result, we must accelerate our strategic initiatives to position AMD to take advantage of these shifts and put in place a lower-cost business model."

AMD's announcement came a day after arch nemesis Intel announced a fall in quarterly sales and profits.