AMD finally fleshed out the "Asset Smart" strategy it has been talking about since, at least, last December. The result: AMD is now fabless.Jerry Sanders, former AMD CEO and co-founder, once quipped, "Only real men have fabs." When presented with the question about real men having fabs, Dirk Meyer, the current AMD CEO, responded with, "We feel like we're still pretty manly at AMD. Frankly, the math has changed." Has the math changed? Stock traders seem to think so. AMD shares registered a 8.5% increase to close at $4.59 per share.
The new pure-play foundry company is being referred to as The Foundry Company, for the time being. The company will be owned by AMD and the Abu Dhabi based Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC). ATIC is dropping a cool $2.1 billion for a 55.6% majority interest in the new company; AMD will have a 44.4% minority interest in the company and equal voting rights, as reported by InformationWeek.
In other links, Barron's breaks the deal down to bullet points, Digitimes presents a no-frills, fact filled writeup, and the EETimes is cheery and optimistic.
