Weak PC Sales Steepen AMD Losses

The company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.16 billion and a net loss of $473 million or 63 cents per share. For the full year, AMD's revenue came in at just $5.42 billion, marking a 17 percent year-over-year drop, with an operating loss of $1.06 billion. This marks the third consecutive quarter the chip maker has reported negative cash flow.

"We made progress in the fourth quarter," said AMD CEO Rory Read during the earnings calls. "However, full-year results fell short of our expectations, as a challenging macro-economic environment resulted in a weaker-than-expected PC market."

[Related: AMD Sues Four Former Employees Who Left For Nvidia ]

AMD's poor financial showing comes at a bad time for the company as PC sales continue to fall and competition heats up around smartphones and tablets. In October, AMD announced a major alliance with ARM Holdings to begin making 64-bit ARM-based chips for servers. But, the new data center processors won't be available until 2014.

Plus, adoption of AMD's new Fusion accelerated processing units (APUs) have been slower than the company expected, and the company has been plagued by layoffs and executive departures.

Reed stressed the company's turnaround is in progress but would take several quarters. "We expect continued choppiness in the PC market in the first half of 2013," he said, "and we will closely manage the business as we reset, restructure and ultimately transform AMD."

AMD expects its first-quarter revenue to be down 9 percent sequentially, plus or minus 3 percent.

PUBLISHED JAN. 22, 2013