AMD announced today that it will reduce its global workforce by 10% and terminate existing contractual commitments, in a bid to save about $10 million (R80 million) in operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2011 and $118 million (R944 million) in 2012.  

 

The company explained that the workforce reduction will occur across all functions globally and is expected to be “substantially completed” by the end of the first quarter of 2012. AMD elaborated that it will reinvest a significant portion of the savings to fund “initiatives designed to accelerate AMD’s strategies for lower power, emerging markets, and the cloud.”

 

“Reducing our cost structure and focusing our global workforce on key growth opportunities will strengthen AMD’s competitiveness and allow us to aggressively pursue a balanced set of strategic activities designed to accelerate future growth,” explained Rory Read, AMD president and chief executive officer.

 

He elaborated that the actions being taken are further designed to improve the company’s ability to consistently address the needs of its global customer base and stake leadership positions in lower power, emerging markets and the cloud. 

Based on anticipated savings from the restructuring plan, the company  revealed that it expects fourth quarter 2011 operating expenses to be approximately $610 million (R4880 million).

 

In recent news, AMD announced that it had invested in BlueStacks, a venture-backed software development firm with an undisclosed amount, as well as launched its AMD FX family of desktop CPUs, which boast 8-core CPUs.