AMD Swings to a Loss But Revenue Down Less Than Expected

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., battered by a shrinking market for personal computers, on Thursday reported another quarter of lower sales, and struck a deal that would give it a $371 million cash infusion.

Still, shares of the company rose 1.5% to $1.99 in late trading as revenue declined less than expected. They have fallen 26% this year.

Overall, AMD swung to a $197 million loss, or 25 cents a share, from a year-earlier profit of $17 million a share, or 2 cents, as revenue fell 26% to $1.06 billion. Excluding $48 million in restructuring charges and other items, the loss was 17 cents a share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected a 12-cent loss on $995.9 million in revenue.

Gross margin narrowed to 22.5% from 34.6% a year earlier and 24.6% in the third quarter. A $65 million inventory writedown, AMD said, accounted for about six percentage points of the drop.

Earlier this month, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company moved to lay off about 500 workers and outsource services as part of a broader realignment to boost computer and graphics chip sales.

Also on Thursday, AMD said it struck a deal with Nantong Fujitsu Microelectronics valued at about $436 million that's expected to close in the first half of 2016. Under the terms of the deal, Nantong Fujitsu Microelectronics, the controlling partner, would take a 85% ownership stake in AMD's operations in Penang, Malaysia, and Suzhou, China. AMD said the deal would be cost neutral but significantly cut its capital expenses.

AMD said revenue for the latest quarter in its computing-and-graphics segment declined 46% from the year-ago period and had a $181 million operating loss. AMD, which ended the quarter with $755 million in cash and $2.26 billion in debt, depends heavily on a few customers. In 2014, five of its customers accounted collectively for about 61% of its net revenue, with Hewlett-Packard Co., Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. each generating more than 13% of AMD's sales, according to a regulatory filing.

For the current quarter, AMD projects revenue to increase between 7% and 13% from the third quarter.

AMD results follow Intel Corp.'s r eported 6.3% third-quarter profit decline on Tuesday, though higher chip prices and demand for larger computers helped soften Intel's shrinking PC business decline.

Intel is the largest supplier of chips for personal computers, followed by AMD. The two companies use the same fundamental design, known as x86, that powers nearly all PCs.

AMD has been trying to reduce its reliance on PC sales, developing chips for gaming systems and customized chips to order for other suppliers. But PC chips remain its biggest business.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com and Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 15, 2015 17:45 ET (21:45 GMT)

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