Posted on Friday, February 27 2009 @ 19:54 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
CNET had an interview with AMD CEO Dirk Meyer, they talked about various subjects like the spinoff of the chip maker's manufacturing fabs, Intel, the economy and netbooks. You can check it out
over here. Here's what Meyer has to say about the creation of The Foundry Company, this deal is expected to close no later than March 2nd.
One of the linchpins of the spin-off is the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Saratoga County, New York. "We still plan to break ground on that facility next summer. When we open up the doors it will be one of the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the country," Meyer said.
Meyer explained what the spin-off means to AMD investors. "What AMD stockholders will own is AMD the product company. It will happen that AMD the product company will own an equity interest in The Foundry. However, The Foundry's operations will be funded off The Foundry Company balance sheet. And AMD won't have any obligations going forward to pony up anymore investments to fund The Foundry company operations," Meyer said.
The upshot is that the spin-off will save AMD money, allowing it to be more profitable. "In the past we've been burdened with the need to invest in silicon R&D and wafer fabs (plants). And this transaction gets us out from underneath both of those things. In the past, we've had to invest between one and two billion dollars a year in manufacturing capacity for wafer fabs. We don't have to do that anymore."
"This will bring a bunch of cash into the company and lighten our debt load," he said.
