Struggling chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc said on Wednesday it was cutting 500 workers, or 3 percent of its global staff, to help the company return to profitability.
The cuts are AMD’s second big round of layoffs this year and come amid a huge restructuring. So far this year, AMD had already laid off 1,600 workers before the latest announcement, replaced its chief executive and revealed plans to spin off its factories — which represent a huge expense for chip makers — in a bid to save money.
AMD, the world’s No. 2 maker of computer microprocessors, had deep financial problems even before the economy soured, losing US$5.6 billion over the past eight quarters, and Wednesday’s announcement says more about the company’s anxiousness to improve its balance sheet than the effect of the economy on the chip industry as a whole.
AMD said on Wednesday it had already notified all US-based employees who were being laid off in the latest round of cuts. The latest cuts come after AMD cut 1,600 workers earlier this year.
The job cuts announced on Wednesday will affect all AMD departments worldwide except for the company’s manufacturing operations, which have roughly 3,000 employees and are being spun off into a separate company, spokesman Michael Silverman said.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs Group Inc has begun notifying about 3,200 employees globally that they have lost their jobs, as the world’s biggest investment bank slashes expenses to ride out the financial crisis, a person familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.
The job cuts, which were first reported last month, are a reflection of the ongoing downturn in the credit and lending markets that triggered massive losses for banks around the world. Goldman Sachs had been considered the strongest investment bank on Wall Street, and earlier this year had expected its payrolls to expand.
Positions will be cut across Goldman’s offices globally and among various business lines, and will bring the company’s staffing to 2006 and 2007 levels, the person said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the company hasn’t publicly disclosed details of the plan.
According to CapitalIQ, Goldman has more than 37,000 employees across its operations.
There also have been reports that Goldman’s army of bankers might see their bonuses cut in half this year.
Difficulties at the firm demonstrate that even the industry’s most powerful player is not immune to fallout from the unprecedented financial turmoil.
On Monday, Merrill Lynch analyst Guy Moszkowski predicted that Goldman would report a loss for the fourth quarter — its first since going public in 1999.
The stock market’s plunge has created a brutal atmosphere for some of Goldman’s once high-flying businesses, such as private equity and proprietary trading.
During its fiscal third quarter, which ended on Aug. 31, the company’s profit fell 71 percent, but that performance was still better than many of its competitors, which have reported quarterly losses throughout much of the year.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
RSS