Posted on Saturday, August 23 2008 @ 0:54 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
FBR analyst Craig Berger
issued a report today that AMD is likely nibbling away more marketshare from NVIDIA than is widely assumed.
"AMD is clearly gaining market share in graphics chips from Nvidia, a known among investors in our opinion, though we believe the magnitude of share gains may be better than generally understood," Berger wrote.
However, Berger cautioned investors about potential delays in AMD's restructuring plans and says improvement in AMD's financial health may be a long way off.
The company has lost $5.5 billion over the past 21 months, and finished the second quarter with $1.57 billion in cash -- roughly the same amount it had last year despite raising $3.65 billion from two separate debt offerings in 2007.
AMD has promised investors it will make its manufacturing operations leaner, suggesting it will sell off some factories or spin them off into a separate business to cut down on the extraordinary expenses of making its own chips.
But the company hasn't provided details of those plans, stirring fears among some investors that improvement to AMD's financial health may be a long way off.
Berger said complications could prevent AMD from completing its so-called "Asset-Lite" strategy soon.
"Stepping back from the very near term, getting its 'Asset-Lite' deal done is of paramount importance in order to avoid raising additional capital," Berger said in his research note. "We think the economics and licensing issues underlying an 'Asset-Lite' deal are challenging hurdles for any counterparty to overcome, and AMD may not get this deal done in a timely fashion."
