blastarr
Power Member
AP
Analyst Sees AMD in Need of Capital
Thursday February 15, 3:44 pm ET
American Technology Sees AMD Needing to Raise Cash in 6 Months
NEW YORK (AP) -- Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. may need to raise cash in about six months, according to a Wall Street analyst.
American Technology Research analyst Doug Freedman, who has a "Sell" rating on the stock, said he has increasing concerns about the company's cash flow.
The analyst noted there are rumors in the market about interest by private equity firms in AMD.
"When we polled clients as to the reason behind (the strength in the stock in Wednesday's trading) we were told that private equity rumors were circulating," Freedman wrote in a note to investors. While we do not doubt that private equity is sitting on cash ... we have a hard time seeing how it would get involved in AMD at the present valuation."
Shares of AMD closed up 2.4 percent at $14.95 in Wednesday's trading.
Freedman also speculated that Michael Dell's recent return to Dell Inc. as chief executive may not bode well for AMD, since he has a strong relationship with chip maker Intel Corp.
"We advise investors to limit their exposure to AMD shares until cash is raised and new product benchmarks are made available," Freedman added.
An AMD spokesperson declined comment.
The company recorded a loss of $166 million for 2006 due to charges related to the acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies AMD ended the year with $1.54 billion in cash and cash equivalents, down from $1.8 billion at the end of 2005.
Over the last 52 weeks, the stock is down roughly 63 percent, reflecting concerns about an ongoing price war with larger rival Intel.
Shares of AMD were down 11 cents at $14.84 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070215/apfn_amd_analyst_note.html?.v=1
Tal como eu dizia, a AMD fez mal ao absorver a ATI, em vez de estabelecer primeiro uma parceria estratégica privilegiada e comprar uma posição minoritária mas relevante.
Além de se endividar durante alguns anos, teve de competir numa fortíssima guerra de preços com uma empresa que se pode dar ao luxo de as travar com mais desenvoltura e reservas financeiras, e por mais tempo.
Isto aconteceu no campo das CPU's, mas agora a guerra é a triplicar (CPU's, chipsets own brand e GPU's).
Por outro lado, o "K8L" certamente vai ter concorrência cerrada do "Penryn", pelo que a free-ride às costas do mau desempenho relativo dos Pentium 4/Pentium D acabou.