AMD Reports 2014 Fourth Quarter Results (And Annual) - Net Loss of $364 million

[ltguy]

Step 1, update all rebranded gpu's to latest arch... step 2... release a freakin 8 core apu with gpu power of the xbox one... stop holding back the console cpu.

[Opcode]

Hopefully AMD can get back in profit from the Upcoming R9 300 series GPUs.... and as for CPUs hopefully the new zen x86 architecture sometime in 2016 will put them back in the game. If worst comes to worst i hope Samsung or another company keeps them afloat by buying them out. The last thing we want is just nvidia and Intel fully dominating the market. Competition is good for this industry!!!!

They should make a turn around in the CPU market. Jim Keller is at the helm of Zen so it should be miles better than Bulldozer at the least. AMD is shifting their strategy to only target profitable markets. They have Skybridge coming out on 20nm later this year which packs both Puma+ and Cortex-A57 on the same package. Being one of the worlds first available multiple arch architectures which will target servers, embedded, custom designs and mobile devices with the ability to run either x86 or ARM with the same chip. They also have K12 in the works that's being helped in development now by Jim Keller which is a high performance ARM core. It's suppose to be faster and more power efficient than AMD's Zen architecture that's being developed entirely under Jim Keller's leadership. That will make a huge impact in the server industry. AMD's on the right road for becoming a profitable company they just have to execute their plans accordingly and hope their investments pay off.

[legend8887]

Nvidia FTW.

[Opcode]

Nvidia FTW.

Just because Nvidia is a plus margin competitor doesn't mean they're better.  :lol:

[sgloux3470]

Hopefully AMD can get out of their rut and turn it around. I'm a big fan of competition.

 

Unfortunately, AMD hasn't released anything competitive for awhile now and they are paying the price for it. 

Their APU's are very competitive with intel in the laptop space.

Their GPU's are very competitive with Nvidia.   They need to work on their marketing though.

 

imo if they manage to release a competitive architecture with Zen, they'll be in a very good position.  Which is why I think they're being upfront about how Zen won't hit until 2016 and that they won't have a ton going on in 2015 in the CPU world.  They need it to be successful or they're going to be toast.

[legend8887]

Just because Nvidia is a plus margin competitor doesn't mean they're better.  :lol:

I'm just saying I like Nvidia. 

[wpirobotbuilder]

I would like to see AMD pick up the pace on their transformation. It takes time, unfortunately. We'll just have to wait and see.

On a related note, keep the overt fanboyism and snarkiness out of the discussion, please.

[Timmy-P]

Is like to see Intel/NVIDIA's reports to see how they fared as well.

I hope AMD turns this around with Carrizo, Zen, and other plans they have too much to live for.

[MoonSpot]

Are there ytd figures for particular GPU's?  I can't seem to find it if its available.  It seems it may just be me thats starstruck by the R9 285 and don't understand how it isn't the "go to" card for 1080p gaming.

 

[speculative and presumptuous back seat ranting]

AMD is too far out already to be considered in high performance mobile.  I don't quite see the value their APUs bring to mobile, beyond a budget gaming laptop or desktop replacements, since they're either outclassed in the highend or not as power efficient for notebooks.  You either have intel + Nvidia in ultrabooks for both performance and power savings, or you have intel by itself for the lowend long battery live. 

 

If it comes between backing budget gaming mobile systems and budget mobile in general, I think AMD should consider dropping mobile gamers altogether.(depending on actual figures naturally) and focus their efforts on squaring away a segment of that market that is worth owning.  They NEED a more commanding mobile presence and i don't care much about what they have to do to get it.

 

Desktops on the other hand, I see AMDs value everywhere that premium performance is neither required, needed or understood.

 

*/me puts on red shirt and grabs AMD pompoms*

Pull through, we love you!

[Albatross]

I don't like the loss of competition. Not at all.

 

Turn it around AMD, and make your products  great.

[Khvarrioiren]

Everyone with even a small bit of knowledge knew that this kind of results would come up. Restructuring the company and preparing for a new arch launch always drain money, which AMD doesn't actually have all that much of. Here's hoping their profit margins go up this year.

[mr moose]

Graphic cards and processors don't magically appear, they have to be made,.

 

AMD have a got a GPU tree in the back yard, it's just they forgot to water it one year and it's still growing small fruit.

[Str_Mape]

 

AMD won't die, and they've a lot incoming with the 3xx series and Zen.  I do however feel Samsung acquiring them would be -amazing-, but would be weird too, given their deal with OCZ for SSD's.  But.. everything's in the air, and we gotta wait! 

 

That was Toshiba not Samsung. Samsung acquiring OCZ's SSD's would make much less sense.

[SurvivorNVL]

 

 

 

That was Toshiba not Samsung. Samsung acquiring OCZ's SSD's would make much less sense.

 

No, no - I meant it'd be weird if Samsung acquired AMD, given AMD's deal with OCZ for the R7 SSD's.  Because Samsung makes their own SSD's.  It'd be weird.  I know Toshiba acquired OCZ

[Str_Mape]

No, no - I meant it'd be weird if Samsung acquired AMD, given AMD's deal with OCZ for the R7 SSD's.  Because Samsung makes their own SSD's.  It'd be weird.  I know Toshiba acquired OCZ

That makes a lot more sense, was super confused by that. Thanks for the clarification.

[shawno]

Hopefully this new ceo can turn things around

Looks as if getting the company headed in a new direction is her biggest priority.

Time will tell

[Carde]

To be expected indeed, still nothing to be concerned about a new CEO with a new direction and new products lines up this year, the key will be seeing how they will do this year, if they still have trouble than I be concerned.

[bigboy678]

One thing is very clear i think. AMD NEEDS to have a stellar release with the zen architecture. If they drop the ball again like they did with bulldozer they wouldnt be able to survive without someone buying them out (Qualcomm, Samsung)

[Nielips]

This is really bot unexpected with not releasing anything new, other than APU's, since 2012, and the heavy investment in their new GPU and CPU's. Which if the benchmarks are correct, will be a pay off.

[dalekphalm]

I don't see why anyone is confused by these results. As others have said above, restructuring a company and developing a brand new GPU arch and CPU arch costs a bucket load of money.

 

They're heavily investing in the future of their company - especially with ZEN. Sure, if ZEN fails, then it could sink them, but they need to take that risk.

[BiG StroOnZ]

Added some charts to the OP to put this into perspective for people. Along with a second source explaining some of the figures. 

[dalekphalm]

Added some charts to the OP to put this into perspective for people. Along with a second source explaining some of the figures. 

It's important to see the difference between GAAP and non-GAAP.

 

GAAP stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. It is standardized and includes all data. It can however be skewed heavily by one-time non-recurring costs, such as when a business restructures. This means that GAAP figures often don't truly reflect the performance of the company. Well... guess what AMD recently did? Yes, a restructuring, and heavy in-house cleaning and refocusing.

 

Non-GAAP excludes these one time costs to show a more representative figure. Obviously, you should compare the two and decide on your own how they are doing for yourself, but it's important to note that AMD just spent a TON of money on restructuring, plus dumping as much cash as possible into R&D for Zen and other projects.

 

Looking at the non-GAAP figures actually gives me a good amount of hope for them. Obviously they still have a ways to go for the recovery, but this is a good indication. I don't know why people are freaking out about it and assume AMD is dying.

[BiG StroOnZ]

It's important to see the difference between GAAP and non-GAAP.

 

GAAP stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. It is standardized and includes all data. It can however be skewed heavily by one-time non-recurring costs, such as when a business restructures. This means that GAAP figures often don't truly reflect the performance of the company. Well... guess what AMD recently did? Yes, a restructuring, and heavy in-house cleaning and refocusing.

 

Non-GAAP excludes these one time costs to show a more representative figure. Obviously, you should compare the two and decide on your own how they are doing for yourself, but it's important to note that AMD just spent a TON of money on restructuring, plus dumping as much cash as possible into R&D for Zen and other projects.

 

Looking at the non-GAAP figures actually gives me a good amount of hope for them. Obviously they still have a ways to go for the recovery, but this is a good indication. I don't know why people are freaking out about it and assume AMD is dying.

 

Looking at non-GAAP figures gives you hope for them? How do you figure?

 

 

I'm not saying they are going to die, but not sure "hope" is the right word to use in this situation. 

[dalekphalm]

Looking at non-GAAP figures gives you hope for them? How do you figure?

 

 

I'm not saying they are going to die, but not sure "hope" is the right word to use in this situation. 

It gives me hope for several reasons:

 

1. They're about to launch a brand new GPU Arch. That:

A. Cost them a lot of money to R&D and manufacture, and

B. Will (hopefully, assuming it lives up) net them a lot of income,

 

and

2. They're R&D-ing a brand new CPU Arch from the ground up, with the legendary Jim Keller. This has taken an even more incredibly vast amount of R&D cost to do when compared to the new GPU's. Assuming it holds up as well, this could skyrocket AMD to the top of the game.

 

Also, according to your own report, their Non-GAAP 2014 Annual statement says they gained $50 Million Net Income (Not counting the non-recurring costs of the restructuring, etc), AND they didn't increase their debt significantly.

 

So yes, this gives me hope. This means that Lisa Su is holding down the hatches long enough for their gamble (300 series GPU's and AMD Zen) to pay off. It means they are holding things together, and not losing more money then they need to.

[BiG StroOnZ]

It gives me hope for several reasons:

 

1. They're about to launch a brand new GPU Arch. That:

A. Cost them a lot of money to R&D and manufacture, and

B. Will (hopefully, assuming it lives up) net them a lot of income,

 

and

2. They're R&D-ing a brand new CPU Arch from the ground up, with the legendary Jim Keller. This has taken an even more incredibly vast amount of R&D cost to do when compared to the new GPU's. Assuming it holds up as well, this could skyrocket AMD to the top of the game.

 

Also, according to your own report, their Non-GAAP 2014 Annual statement says they gained $50 Million Net Income (Not counting the non-recurring costs of the restructuring, etc), AND they didn't increase their debt significantly.

 

So yes, this gives me hope. This means that Lisa Su is holding down the hatches long enough for their gamble (300 series GPU's and AMD Zen) to pay off. It means they are holding things together, and not losing more money then they need to.

 

Ok, but here's what happens when you only look at one company and not involve the other companies it is competing with also in your projected future outcomes. The 380X will come out and will most likely be faster than the 980 probably about 5-10%. Which is great. However, NVIDIA already has GM200 finished. It already has surfaced as a Quadro card, with 50% increase in specs over the 980. Now, all NVIDIA has to do is release another Titan as the fastest GPU to take over that segment of the market. Having the fastest GPU available. Now granted, it might not be for everyone's pockets but it will still be the fastest GPU. And AMD won't have an answer to that card for at least 6-8 months. Of course, that doesn't take care of the people who aren't in that price bracket. So what could NVIDIA possibly do to regain control of that market segment? Release a cut down version of the Titan, that obliterates the 380x and now they regain control of that market segment again. So what does that mean for AMD again? Then you say, well, they will have the 390 and 390X available. Sure, but NVIDIA is just going to then release a version of the card with more cores unlocked. Thus allowing them to overtake the 390 and 390x but be priced way below the Titan. Which puts them happily in direct competition.

 

Then you go onto explain Zen. Zen is not projected until 2016, and all this hurt they are experiencing will only delays roadmaps for longer. As a matter of fact, Zen isn't even on any current AMD road maps that you can find. So what does that say about the project itself? Yes there has been public discussion about it, but from an official standpoint there is none yet. Some even say Zen won't be available until 2017.  By that time, Intel will have released; Broadwell, Skylake, and Cannonlake. Which means by then Intel will be down to 10nm while AMD will most likely only be down to 16nm. There were also Intel documents that indicates 7 nm may reach production for them around 2017, with 5 nm in 2019.

 

Do you see how far behind AMD is? How much catching up they have to do? Even if they do catch up, they will still be behind by the time they catch up. 

 

Trust me, I would love to see AMD succeed and bring back good healthy competition for the industry. But as much as I would like to see them succeed, I'm not going to blind myself from the facts that currently stand. 

 

Yeah they made $51 million in profit, a small profit and as the article exclaims, "Once again, the core business is breaking even, but the heavy write downs are hurting the bottom line."