AMD reported its first loss since the first quarter of 2005, losing $574 million or $1.08 per share, during the fourth quarter. Most of AMD"s loss can be attributed to the acquisition of ATI; AMD said that it took $550 million in charges related to the purchase of the graphics company, which works out to about $1.04 per share. Another 5¢ per share of charges, or $27 million, came from stock-based compensation expenses. Another cause of this loss can be blamed on the price war between AMD and Intel.
Nevertheless, the Sunnyvale-based company set a record for total CPU shipments last quarter, a growth of 26%, although it wouldn"t reveal the exact numbers. Another blow to AMD came early this year when Sun decided to forego its exclusive x86 supplier arrangement with AMD in favor of a new partnership with Intel. AMD expects to see some savings from the ongoing transition to the 65nm chip form factor and expects Barcelona, which arrives in the second half of 2007, to do be particularly competitive with Intel"s offerings.