Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) blamed poor sales of flash memory
products and competitive pricing pressure in the PC chips market as
it reported a sharp drop in second-quarter revenue.
For the three months to 1 July, AMD reported revenue of $985.3m
(£703m) compared to $1.2bn for the corresponding period last year.
Net income fell from $207.1m to $17.4m over the same period. The
company announced an earnings per share dividend of five cents, a
sharp drop from last year's 61 cents per share figure.
AMD said the poor figures were largely the result of a reduction in
the price of PC processors, which account for approximately 60% of
sales. On a brighter note, the company said combined sales of its
Athlon and Duron processors reached a record 7.7 million units
during the second quarter.
Jerry Sanders, AMD's chairman and chief executive officer, said the
chip-maker planned to launch a 1.5GHz version of its Athlon chip
for desktop PCs "soon", while a 1GHz version of its low-cost Duron
processor would be unveiled during the third quarter. AMD also
expects to launch a 1.7GHz desktop processor by the end of the
year.