ATI overvalued, expected losses for AMD

AMD has indicated in documents destined to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the watch dog for American stock markets, that the goodwill value (know-how, name, and potential) listed in the acquisition of ATI at $3.2 billion should be reevaluated to be lower.

Clearly, this signifies that AMD admits having paid an excessive price for ATI ($5.4 billion), goodwill here being defined as the difference between the price and net assets.

Beyond the words and the implicit recognition of what now appears as an error, this especially has a consequence in adding additional costs from a strictly accounting point of view. Even if this doesn’t change anything in terms of the company’s cash situation, it has an impact on financial results and therefore its growing losses.

Finally, in an interview granted to CNBC Europe, Hector Ruiz, the firm’s CEO, clearly made it understood that he wouldn’t pass the baton to Dirk Meyer, the current Chief Operating Officer, before 2009 at the earliest.