Just one day ahead of its meeting with financial analysts Advanced Micro Devices said that the value it paid for graphics and multimedia chip designer ATI Technologies last year was too high and the actual revenues the company gets and will be able to obtain from its graphics and multimedia businesses are below expectations.
According to a statement with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), AMD concluded that the current carrying value of its goodwill which it had recorded as a result of its October 2006 acquisition of ATI Technologies was impaired. The write down will allow AMD to easily explain financial analysts why its current market capitalization ($4.97 billion at press time) is below the price of ATI it paid last year as well as poor financial results and losses with problems that allegedly existed at ATI before the merge.