| jefforange89 said: But, selling off their stake in Global Foundries, wouldn't that be a bad thing? Or is there something I'm missing here...? |
Depends on your point of view. The contract position saying they had to retain 50% control and 33% share has been dropped, so they are free to do so if they wish now.
They needed to spin off their fabs in the first place because only having a single customer wasn't using all of the capacity and wasn'tprofitinh from new process technology enough to fund its development. By having multiple customers they will solve both issues. You'll only see a wave of new customers after 28nm bulk silicon launches, so it's hard to tell how many they'll get.
If Globalfoundries will get sufficient new customers to become very profitable in the future, AMD should retain their stake. The disadvantage is that any loss GF makes will drag down their balance sheet (AMD the Product Company made a profit in Q3, AMD + stake in GF made a net loss), and also that they have to be involved in running a fab which they have stated is not their core business so distracts focus. The advantage is that they get more control over decision-making, though since they would be the largest customer anyway they probably won't lose that.
I think it's too early to tell what AMD should do, and AMD should wait until the 28nm node is established to see whether GF can ever be profitable and to what extent before selling their stake. But their executives' comments convey a willingness to sell sooner. Either way, the legal fact that they can now do this has got to be a good thing - Intel has less of a hold over its sole competitor.
