AMD reports net loss of $473 million in Q4 2012

AMD clearly hasn’t had the best of times recently and the company has ended Q4 rather poorly, with the company reporting a net loss of $473 million. AMD has managed to generate revenue of $1.16 billion for the fourth quarter, which is still a 9% decline sequentially and 32% year-over-year.

AMD’s operating loss has been reported at $422 million and the company has lost about $0.63 per share.

The company had to settle down for a GAAP gross margin of 15% for the quarter. AMD’s computing solutions, which is one of the largest divisions of the company played the biggest part in the poor performance, registering a loss of $323 million, a 37% fall year-over-year.

AMD’s Graphics segment didn’t fare all that great either, as the company’s product shipments decreased 15% year-over-year. AMD’s overall revenue of $5.42 billion sounds impressive but nevertheless a 17% fall over the same period of 2011. AMD’s prospects for the current quarter don’t look any brighter, as the company expects its revenues to fall by another 9% in the Q1 2013.

AMD’s marketing strategies have been pretty poor and the company surely needs to get back to its drawing board and work it out, if it is to survive.

Google announces improved Image Search

Google has announced a new version of their Image Search service. The changes are specifically targeted at improving the time required to find and download images.

Previously, clicking on a thumbnail in the Image Search results would load a silly iframe where the selected image was floating on top of the source page. This considerably increased the time required to access the image as the browser would be loading the image as well as the source page simultaneously. What Google has done now with the new Image Search is eliminate the iframe page altogether and display the image directly within the search results.

Now, when you click on a thumbnail, you will get a drop down showing the image along with the metadata for it. On the side you will find links for the original website as well as a direct link to download the image. Because the image loads within the search results, you can continue scrolling for other images without having to go back a page. You can also use keyboard controls to move between the images in the search results.

This new Image Search will begin rolling out to users in the next few days.

Microsoft Dell investment plans look up to $1 to $3 billion

Microsoft plans to invest about $1 to $3 billion in the expansion funding of Dell as the officials are in discussion. Dell intends to go private as reported by Bloomberg and was initially led by Silver Lake Partners and include Dell CEO Michael Dell and a special committee representing Dell shareholders. The company running publicly since 1988 is planning to sell out to private investors and is looking at a stock price of $13 to $14 or a total of $22 billion to $25 billion leveraged layout.

Both Microsoft and Dell have refused to give comments on the matter but the deal is expected to be finalized by the end of the week. Microsoft advancing with an increasing dependency on hardware in 2012 would be quite benefited by the Microsoft Dell investment especially after the launch of its Surface Tablet.

Deployment of Biometric Verification System and The Conspiracy Theories!

Telecom industry is abuzz with the word that deployment of Biometric solution at Customer Service Centers, Franchises and retail outlets for the sale of new SIMs is primarily a move to benefit National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), a government entity.

They say that the whole episode of banning sale of new SIMs, MNP ban and other similar moves by government were the efforts to reap the telecom sector to benefit a single entity and it had nothing much to do with the security.

Those who support this theory say that each cellular company will have to invest at least Rs. 500 million (or Rs. 2.5 billion in total) to deploy biometric solution, that too for just their service centers, franchises and 10,000 retail outlets, as compared to 200,000 retail outlets that were previously operational.

All this investment is likely to go into NADRA’s pockets as evidently they are going to deploy the solution for telcos, despite, there are other solutions available in the market which claim to be cheaper (in terms of price) than the one quoted by NADRA.

Conspiracy theorists further advocate that current verification process of one subscribers (without biometrics) from NADRA costs cellular companies Rs. 17 — and rate is likely to increase to somewhere around Rs. 30-35 per verification; meaning that more recurring revenues for the NADRA.

This will be in addition to service and maintenance cost that the equipment (both on client and server side) may require — and again the only beneficiary will be the vendor, the NADRA.

Those who support this theory further suggest that this whole practice will enable NADRA to become a strong contestant for selling SIMs through its Sahulat Ghars, meaning that more margins and subsequently more revenues.

While we know that biometric solution doesn’t offer cent percent guarantee for elimination of unverified SIMs, such hefty investments by cellular companies is brutal at a time when cellular outages have already impacted the revenues of cellular companie by large.

This is especially alarming when cellular companies are up with alternative but inexpensive solutions with similar results, but reportedly the Ministry of IT and PTA are determined to get biometric verification system be rendered operational by February 28, 2013.

While we aren’t sure about the theories or their outcomes, it is clear that telecom industry will soon exhaust if such deliberate attempts by government aren’t put on halt.

AbacusConsulting Wins SAP Regional Partner Excellence Award 2013

 AbacusConsulting yesterday announced it is the recipient of a SAP Regional Partner Excellence Award 2013 in the category “Top Mobile Partner of the Year across the APJ region.”
Award was presented by SAP during the SAP® Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) Kick-Off Meeting 2013, held Jan. 14-16 in Singapore, to the top-performing SAP channel partners and SAP services partners in the APJ region for outstanding contributions that impact overall SAP sales and pipeline-generation goals.
Abbas Ali Khan, Partner at AbacusConsulting, said

“AbacusConsulting has a core focus on Mobility as we believe that the mobile platform offers great new opportunities for the enterprise of today. We are helping our clients leverage the mobile platform and positioning their businesses for the future.
Working with SAP on Mobility is extremely rewarding – they have the best capabilities on the mobile platform and they are equally excited about the role of mobile in the future. In 2012, we achieved a great deal within the Mobile Banking space and are thrilled that SAP has recognized us at the Asia Pacific level”.

AbacusConsulting received the award during the SAP APJ FKOM 2013, an annual gathering of SAP executives, SAP field employees and partners.
“A thriving partner ecosystem is central to SAP’s success, and partners like AbacusConsulting are key drivers for our customers’ success and for SAP’s market reach,” said Bronwyn Hastings, senior vice president, Ecosystem & Channels, SAP APJ.
“As a recipient of a SAP Regional Partner Excellence Award 2013, we recognize AbacusConsulting’s commitment and efforts in developing and growing its partnership with SAP, which has led to game-changing co-innovation and market expansion.”