blastarr
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So much for "Real men have Fab's"...
A ironia é que a empresa que não ficar com as fábricas acaba por se tornar mais vulnerável a um posterior take-over...
Fonte: The New York Times
A ironia é que a empresa que não ficar com as fábricas acaba por se tornar mais vulnerável a um posterior take-over...
A.M.D. to Split Into Two Operations
By ASHLEE VANCE
Published: October 6, 2008
In a dramatic effort to maintain its position as the only real rival to Intel, Advanced Micro Devices plans to announce Tuesday that it will split into two companies — one focused on designing microprocessors and the other on the costly business of manufacturing them.
In addition, the company said two Abu Dhabi investment firms will inject at least $6 billion into the two firms, mostly to finance a new chip factory A.M.D. planned to build near Albany, N.Y., and to upgrade one of the company’s existing plants in Dresden, Germany.
A.M.D., a Sunnyvale, Calif., company that makes graphics, computer and server processors, will own 44.4 percent of the new entity, which has been temporarily dubbed The Foundry Company, a reference to the technical term for a chip factory. Advanced Technology Investment Co., or A.T.I.C., will own the rest.
A.T.I.C., which was formed by the Abu Dhabi government, has promised to put up $2.1 billion immediately and contribute $3.6 billion to $6 billion more to build or upgrade chip fabrication plants, also known as fabs. A.M.D. said the two companies will share voting control equally.
Mubadala Development Co., an Abu Dhabi firm that bought 8 percent of A.M.D. in November, will pay $314 million for 58 million newly issued shares, increasing its stake in the pre-split company to 19.3 percent. It will also get warrants to buy 30 million additional shares. A.M.D. stock closed Monday at $4.23 a share, down 30 cents.
“We generally believe this deal is a game changer for the industry,” said Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chief executive of Mubadala. “It’s bold, and I think it’s smart.”
Coming up with the billions of dollars needed to construct each new chip plant has proved to be a massive drain on A.M.D., the perennial No. 2 to Intel in the market for microprocessors, the powerful chips that control the functions of personal computers and the larger corporate machines known as servers. As of June, A.M.D. reported that it had $5.3 billion in debt and just $1.6 billion in cash.
With the constant need to devise smaller, faster, more energy-efficient chips to keep up with Intel, A.M.D. was forced to turn to outside help.
“This is the biggest announcement in our history,” said A.M.D.’s chief executive, Dirk Meyer. “This will make us a financially stronger company, both in the near term and in the long term, as a result of being out from the capital expense burden we have had to bear.”
The semiconductor industry faces constant consolidation due to the amount of investment required to create ever finer components on semiconductors. In addition, chip makers tend to experience dramatic financial fluctuations as they adapt to shifts in manufacturing processes.
But executives from both Abu Dhabi investment groups expressed optimism that they’re buying into what is overall a growth business.
“Yes, it is a cyclical business, but over time the trajectory is always upwards,” said Waleed Al Mokarrab, chairman of A.T.I.C.
The transaction, which A.M.D. expects will close in early 2009, must be approved by shareholders, regulators and officials in New York and Germany who oversee government subsidies for the local chip plants.
A.M.D. said Foundry will manufacture processors for A.M.D. as well as other customers. This will place the new entity in fierce competition with a host of companies, many of them in Asia, which produce chips designed by other firms.
The breakup of A.M.D. marks a major shift in the processor landscape, leaving Intel as the only significant maker of PC chips to still design and build its own products. Such an arrangement is often seen as an advantage since it allows the chip maker to align upcoming products with the latest advances in manufacturing technology.
Indeed, the split, which has been in the works for more than a year, did not come easily to A.M.D. According to company lore, A.M.D.’s co-founder and longtime chief executive, W. J. “Jerry” Sanders III, once remarked that “real men have fabs.”
Under the deal proposed by A.M.D., the company would retain many of the traditional benefits of fabs, since part of Foundry will be dedicated to serving A.M.D. and will remain in close communication with the company’s engineers.
“We feel like we’re still pretty manly at A.M.D.,” Mr. Meyer said. Noting that Mr. Sanders made his quip over a decade ago, he added, “Frankly, the math has changed.”
A.M.D. owns a pair of plants in Dresden. One of them is already state-of-the-art, but the other is undergoing a conversion that will let it produce processors for other companies as well as A.M.D.
With the cash infusion, A.M.D. said it is now committed to moving forward with plans, first announced in June 2006, to build a massive $3.2 billion chip fab in Malta, N.Y.
The plant, which will be owned by the new manufacturing company, will employ about 1,400 workers and is expected to get about $1.2 billion in incentives from the State of New York.
I.B.M., which also has chip plants in the state, has extended a technology pact with A.M.D. to 2015.
A.M.D. will count $700 million of the $2.1 billion from A.T.I.C. as payment for its stake in the foundry company. Foundry will also assume $1.2 billion of A.M.D.’s debt.
Following the April 2003 release of a new server processor, A.M.D. enjoyed one of the strongest runs in the company’s history. The product, sold under the Opteron brand, turned A.M.D. into a major player in the server market for the first time and helped it secure I.B.M., Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Sun Microsystems as key customers.
The company’s fortunes started to fade as it endured product delays and glitches in 2007 that eroded many of the gains it had made against its rival, Intel.
In addition, A.M.D. struggled to digest ATI Technologies, a graphics chip maker which it acquired in 2006 for $5.4 billion. It has taken multiple writedowns related to the deal in 2007 and has been selling off some of ATI’s former businesses.
After posting seven consecutive quarterly losses, A.M.D. in July replaced its chief executive, Hector de J. Ruiz, with Mr. Meyer, then the company’s president and chief operating officer..
A.M.D. has a number of technology cross-licensing deals with Intel and other semiconductor companies. The company said that the structure of the new chip making company should leave those deals intact.
Mr. Ruiz, A.M.D.’s chairman, will resign that role and serve as chairman of Foundry. Doug Grose, a senior vice president in charge of manufacturing at A.M.D., will become chief executive.
A.M.D., which currently employs close to 16,000 people, will move 3,000 workers to Foundry, which is expected to have sales of about $1.5 billion per year.
A.M.D. is expected to provide more details on its plans during Tuesday meetings with financial analysts.
Fonte: The New York Times
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