AMD has recently announced that it will cut 430 jobs worldwide (2.6% of its workforce) which breaks down to around 40 jobs in AMD"s Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, CA offices; 80 jobs in Austin, TX; around 12 in Boston, MA; and 50 in Markham, Ontario. The remainder of the job cuts will be spread throughout AMD offices and manufacturing locations around the world. Most of the jobs will be from marketing, sales and administration, but several engineering jobs will also be cut.
The announcement comes after AMD Chief Executive Hector Ruiz described AMD"s recent performance as "unacceptable." Ruiz said that as many as 800 jobs, the equivalent of 5% of AMD"s workforce, would face possible elimination. American Technology Research analyst Doug Freedman believes the job cuts could "save the company about $40 million per annum in operating expenses and add 8 cents to the bottom-line." While Intel released the Core 2 Duo chip last year, AMD believes its Barcelona technology will offer better performance since it has four cores on a single die.