Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/09/23/amd_cuts_q3_forecast/

AMD chops Q3 sales forecast

Consumer notebooks fall off the table

By Timothy Prickett Morgan

Posted in Channel, 23rd September 2010 21:28 GMT

Whatever Intel does, Advanced Micro Devices has to do it too. And vice versa. The chip designer and seller (but not maker) warned Wall Street after the markets closed today that its third quarter isn't looking so hot.

AMD said that sales in the third quarter ending September 25 would be down between 1 and 4 per cent compared to the $1.65bn in sales it posted in the second quarter of fiscal 2010 ended June 26. When it reported its financial results for the second quarter back in mid-July, the company did not provide precise guidance, but said that it expected sales to be "seasonally up." That apparently is not going to happen, and sales will now, if you do the math, come in at between $1.55bn and $1.63bn.

"The sequential decrease is due to weaker than expected demand, particularly in the consumer notebook market in Western Europe and North America," AMD explained in its short statement.

In the third quarter of 2009, AMD's sales fell by 22 per cent, to just under $1.4bn and the company lost $128m. So a 1 to 4 per cent slip is a cakewalk by comparison.

The PC business is not just weighing on AMD, of course. Back in late August, Intel cut its own guidance for the third quarter, saying revenues would come in between $10.8bn and $11.2bn, significantly lower than the $11.2bn to $12bn guidance that the company gave Wall Street back in July 13 when it reported its Q2 results - its quarter in its history.

All of the PC market watchers have been cutting their 2010 shipment forecasts, and they might start sharpening their pencils again.

AMD reports its Q3 results on October 14. ®