AMD blames PC price war for red ink

AMD's founder, at outgoing CEO Jerry Sanders blamed an "ugly" price war for his companies whopping loss last quarter. AMD lost close to $100m on its operations, and after additional items were accounted for posted a $186.9 million loss for the quarter.

In a shrinking PC market where almost every player is being bruised, AMD is hurting more than most: revenues fell 22 per cent quarter on quarter to $765.8 million, down from $1.2 billion in the same period last year.

The number of chips shipped remained the same as the previous quarter, and AMD blamed the price war for the 20 per cent hit in revenues, obliging the company to sell more lower cost processors and cut margins across the board. AMD's flash memory business took a particular blow, down 34 per cent on the quarter.

AMD has revamped its desktop processor in the form of Athlon XP, but warned that it only expected unit sales to rise slightly in the coming quarter. ®