AMD to cut 9 percent of staff

SAN FRANCISCO (AP/KXAN) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. plans to cut 1,100 jobs, 9 percent of its global staff, as the slumping chip maker retrenches during a slowdown in sales of personal computers.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company says 900 workers will have their positions cut. The rest of the reductions are coming from attrition and the previously announced sale of a business unit.

The company has 15,000 workers currently, but none of the 3,000 workers who will be part of the planned spinoff of AMD's manufacturing operations will be cut. So AMD's cut of 1,100 jobs amounts to 9 percent of the remaining 12,000 workers. The spinoff is expected to go through this quarter.

According to Michael Silverman, AMD decided to reduce their costs, they had to reduce the employee base pay as well as suspend some benefits programs.

"Executive chairman Hector Ruiz and CEO Dirk Meyer will be taking a temporary reduction of 20 percent in base salary," said Silverman. "In the U.S. and Canada, we will be implementing similar salary reductions of 15 percent for VPs and above, 10 percent for all other non-overtime eligible employees, and 5 percent for all overtime-eligible employees. Outside North America, we will be implementing voluntary pay reduction measures consistent with local policies and regulations. Suspend the 401K company match and delay implementation of the RRSP company match program."

They do not ahve any specifics regarding the Austin impact at this time.