According to Reuters AMD hired the services of the JPMorgan bank to "explore options"-- options such as the sale of patents and IP, if not actually selling the company.
In reply to Reuters AMD says "the strategy the company is currently pursuing to drive long-term growth by leveraging AMD's highly-differentiated technology assets is the right approach to enhance shareholder value. AMD is not actively pursuing a sale of the company or significant assets at this time."
What is certain is AMD has financial troubles. The company's value is falling as it lays off engineers and struggles with growing debt and smaller cash reserves. A shrinking PC market is also not doing the company any favours either.
AMD recently started using ARM-based designs for low-cost and power-efficient chips, but the unkind might suggest that is a bit too little, too late. It is also investing further in non-PC business, such as communications, industrial and gaming, segments one Reuters source describes as "the company's silver linings."
The company already sold some segments a few years ago-- back in 2008 it sold the Imageon handheld graphics division and Xileon 32-bit MIPS SoC to Broadcom and Qualcomm. It also divested of some 200mm fab equipment before spinning off GlobalFoundries altogether.
Wall Street analysts suggest Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Intel or Facebook might be interested in at least "some" AMD business, such as the graphics, PC processor and server chip divisions. Another potentially valuable AMD assets are its engineers or patents.
