Stefan Mileschin

AMD has announced that it is trimming more staff, but the numbers joining the dole queue were much lower than expected.

AMD said that it will axe its workforce by 15 percent in a second round of layoffs in less than a year. However word on the street suggested the company was going to trim its workforce by a third as the chipmaker forecast a drop in fourth-quarter revenue that is worse than Wall Street expected.

Chief Executive Rory Read said he does not expect the PC industry to improve for "several" quarters.

In a statement AMD said that it expects its restructuring actions, which will also include site consolidations, to result in operational savings of $190 million next year. It expects to record a restructuring expense in the fourth quarter of about $80 million.

But its problem is that the PC market is in a slump and anyone with cash is buying a nice new portable machine, which AMD does not make much of.

AMD has set a target for a quarterly $1.3 billion revenue break-even point.

Shares of AMD have fallen 43 percent over the past year to levels last seen in 2009.

The company posted third-quarter revenue of $1.27 billion, down from $1.69 billion a year ago, and a net loss of $157 million compared with a year ago profit of $97 million.

http://news.techeye.net/chips/amd-confirms-layoffs