Word has reached us that AMD has cut their PR and Marketing department and as of this writing only three unnamed executives are left there from the original team. This is very interesting news for us out here especially anyone that has been dealing with AMD for any length of time. The cuts were originally blamed on a poorly performing PC market and increased interest in tablets and smart phones. This sentiment was shouted down by some in the press who wanted to know how both Microsoft and Intel managed record quarters if the PC market was down. However the original stories (published by some) were quickly updated to tone down these remarks. Of course considering where Read came from and some recent statements (and rumors) that AMD is going to try and push into the SoC market I am not surprised to see this type of spin on some of the articles.

I have to say that I knew something was going south when I received an email from the long time New Products Release Manager (many of you will know who I am talking about) that he was leaving AMD. I was introduced to two new people that I had never heard of before. After that I did not hear anything from AMD until I ventured the question about a possible AMD FX Sample for review. The reply was short, professional and rather cold considering the history I have with AMD (I have been working with them since launch of the Opteron). But as this is a new site and I had ventured out on my own I was not surprised, disappointed yes, but again not surprised.

However, looking back I think that was an indicator that things were not as they should have been. After all you do not just up and leave after 10+ years for no reason.  Something had to clue him into changes being made. Then the response (or lack of response) to my emails after the terse “sorry we do not have any more CPUs, good luck” email was also surprising as even when I have annoyed people at AMD they have always communicated with me.

Still with this move I have to hope that this is a change for the better. In the past AMD has been exceptionally xenophobic about who they talk to, and who they work with. They ended up dragging ATi into this way of thinking as well and pushed many good PR and Marketing people off into other less impressive positions. We can only hope that the three people left in charge are not the ones that I have recently dealt with, if they are then Rory Read’s sweeping action may just end up getting him more of the same and possibly end up netting him even less coverage for the products that AMD is pushing out or will push out.

In the end it is sad that some 1400 people are out of work and that AMD continues to step all over their own feet with one bad move after another. We just hope that this one is not another blunder to go into AMD’s top ten.

Source TechReport

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