AMD Q4 loss widens, shares drop

SAN FRANCISCO: In its fourth fiscal, AMD’s net loss widened from a year earlier, after a charge related to layoffs stemming from the chip industry's worst downturn ever. The loss excluding one-time items was far bigger than Wall Street forecasts, and AMD's shares fell in after-hours trade.

Like arch-rival Intel Corp. earlier in the week, AMD said it would lower capital spending in 2003. Intel's news sent chip equipment stocks tumbling. The company said its net loss for the quarter widened to $854.7 million, or $2.49 a share, from a loss of $15.8 million, or 5 cents a share, a year earlier.

Sales dropped to $686.4 million from $951.9 million a year ago. It does not expect sales to improve much in the first quarter. Last month, the company forecast fourth-quarter sales close to $700 million.

Excluding one-time items, including a $330.6 million restructuring charge for the layoffs, AMD would have recorded a fourth-quarter loss per share of 68 cents, substantially bigger than the 42 cents a share loss analysts had forecast on average, according to Thomson First Call.

Forecasts ranged from a loss of 30 cents to a loss of 59 cents, on revenue of $682.8 million. "Two-thousand and two was an awful year, but we believe the worst is behind us," AMD Chief Executive Hector Ruiz said in a conference call. He added that the company is targeting break-even by the second quarter.

Special charges in the quarter totaled $620 million and included the charge for layoffs, consolidation of facilities and asset impairments; $46 million primarily related to a research and development expense; and an income tax expense charge of $243 million to establish 100 percent valuation against net deferred tax assets.

Shares of AMD closed at $7.20, down 3.36 percent, or 25 cents, on the Nasdaq. Before the earnings report the company's shares were halted on the exchange. They were trading around $6.75 in after-hours trade, according to Island.

Q1 sales flat to up slightly

AMD said it expects flat to "nominally" up first-quarter sales and an increase in processor revenue, despite historical seasonal patterns indicating a 5 percent to 8 percent drop in PC processor sales. AMD said it expects to realize the first benefits of its cost reductions in the first quarter and remains on target to reduce its overall cost structure to below $800 million per quarter by the second quarter.

For 2003, capital expenditures will be about $650 million, about $50 million less than in 2002, said Robert Rivet, chief financial officer at AMD.

In the fourth quarter, AMD reported a 60 percent increase in sales of PC processors, driven by both an increase in units sold and in the average selling price, and a 15 percent rise in sales of Flash memory, used in the cell phones.

Inventory levels, the length of time products are at distributors, also dropped from eight weeks to four weeks, executives said. AMD is "rebalancing inventories in the PC supply chain, bolstering our capital structure and reducing the break-even point," said Ruiz.

Analyst Dan Scovel said he couldn't see where the cost cutting measures were reflected in the results. "I'm sure they're making progress, but unfortunately, we didn't see the cost savings come through in the financials," said Scovel, of Needham & Co. Inc.

Going forward, increased sales of pricier laptop computers and the introduction of a faster Athlon desktop chip and the Opteron server chip based on the "Hammer" technology should help raise average selling prices and improve results, Scovel said.

Sluggish PC demand, as well as a build-up of inventories of its Athlon and Duron microprocessors among PC makers and distributors, hurt AMD in the third quarter. The company secured about $400 million in proceeds from a successful convertible offering, ending the year with more than $1 billion in cash. It also said it renegotiated a long-term debt associated with its Dresden, Germany, fabrication plant, thus reducing its 2003 cash requirements by $200 million.

AMD is No. 2 in the market for microprocessors, the brains of computers. Sector leader Intel, with about 80 percent market share, on Tuesday said fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled from a year earlier to 16 cents per share on revenue of $7.2 billion.

At the same time, Intel said it would cut capital expenses for 2003 more deeply than Wall Street expected and forecast lower first-quarter revenues, in line with seasonal trends.

For two years the semiconductor industry has been in its worst downturn ever, hit by slow sales of personal computers amid an overall declining economy.

© Reuters