AMD Turns In 4 Cent Per Share Loss For Q1

AMD turned in sales of $1.227 billion for the first quarter, compared with $1.236 billion for the same period in 2004. AMD's loss was $17 million for the quarter, compared with a profit of $45 million for the first quarter of 2004.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company appeared ready to take steps to address softness in flash memory. AMD said it had filed for an initial public offering of Spansion, the joint venture for flash memory that it has operated with Fujitsu. The IPO would take the form of a spin-off for Spansion, of which AMD owns 60 percent and Fujitsu owns 40 percent. In a statement, Robert Rivet, AMD's chief financial officer, said the company's earnings were hit hard by "extreme" pricing pressure in flash memory, where the company has a significant business.

AMD CEO Hector Ruiz sidestepped prolonged discussion of the negative results and focused on upcoming processor releases. Ruiz told analysts during a teleconference that the company would, in fact, bring its first dual-core processors to market earlier than had been planned.

"We can confirm we will be launching our highly anticipated Opteron dual core processor" next week in New York, when the company marks the second anniversary of its 64-bit server processor. Ruiz said AMD would also demonstrate AMD's Athlon 64 dual core chip next week as well.

Earlier this week, AMD rival Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., said it had begun shipping its first dual core processors to OEMs and would also launch its line of two-core chips this month.

AMD said its processor business actually turned in "record sales" for the period that ended March 27. In a statement, the company said it expected processor sales for the second quarter to be "flat or down slightly" in what it described as "a typically seasonally down" period.