AMD’s Rivas Says North American Demand Soft

Mario Rivas is irritated. Rivas is executive VP of the computing solutions group of Advanced Micro Devices; he runs the company’s processor business. So you can imagine why he might be a little cranky: AMD shares have dropped by more than 50 percent since mid-November. There are a host of reasons for the huge slide. For one, several analysts have turned a bit more cautious on the outlook for PC unit demand in 2008 after a robust 2007. For another, investors have worries about the company’s capital structure–they think AMD is going to have sell more debt in the not-too-distance future. The company seems to be losing mind share, and maybe market share, to Intel. And not least, the company’s Barcelona server processor was buggy and late.

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