Tom's Hardware : Former AMD exec: "Even I wouldn't buy AMD"

[toughluck]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD...hard,9441.html

Seriously, WTF? In 2004 you wouldn't buy an AMD system? Sure, in 2000 or in 2007, I'd believe that, but 2004 was right in the middle of the time when AMD was way ahead in performance over P4 and offered lower power consumption on base clocks. I mean, come on, this is either a hoax, a prank or the guy is/was uninformed.

I won't quote the article in full, so I'll just put some interesting tidbits:

In a recent filing to the FTC Intel has cited a former AMD executive who admitted that if it wasn't for company loyalty, he "would never buy AMD" when it came to purchasing a personal system.

CNet reports Intel cites a 2004 internal AMD communication from former AMD Executive Vice President Henri Richard, the company's then-highest-ranking sales executive who said, "If you look at it with an objective set of eyes, you would never buy AMD. I certainly would never buy AMD for a personal system, if I wasn't working here."

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy told CNet News that the company got the internal AMD communication through the discovery process and that over time, "more and more [of] this kind of information will be available in the case."

I wonder what's the context here. It may be possible that he was either joking or it made sense in the context (e.g. he was quoting somebody from the lower echelons).

Of course, this is unprofessional as hell* and even if he was not bound by contract*, negatively commenting on his employer's products while in tenure is not going to earn him bonus points in his resume (unless he wants to score brownie points with (read: suck up to) Intel or Nvidia). Even outside his tenure, negative comments over the previous employer should remain confidential, and if the new employer cannot be trusted to keep it classified, he shouldn't be provided with this information, especially if one is working for core competency competition.

Then again, we don't know exactly when he made the internal comment. There are many extrovert and emotional people who will loudly express their bitterness over being laid off, then there's the possibility that this lack of professionalism may very well have been what got him fired in the first place.

*) I work for one company providing direct service to another company. While technically we're employees of company 1, we're accessing the customer's (company 2) channels directly, as if we were employees of company 2. Therefore, we are bound by contract and workplace regulations of both companies (with our employer's contract binding us both at work and outside of work, and our customer's contract binding us at work and discussing professional issues outside of work).
Among other things, both contracts require us to not divulge any information regarding both companies publicly without authorization, not use or recommend competing hardware or software when acting in professional capacity or when leveraging the fact of working for any of the companies.

[265586888]

It's always simple to quote something out of context, or pull a sleaze attack on somebody based on misinformations.

Intel thinks they can do anything they want, including attacking AMD executives to make AMD's testimony invalid due to discrediting those executive's integrity in the FTC case, after they "settled" everything with AMD, since AMD stopped all legal proceedings with Intel regarding "anti-competitive pratices".

New corporate slogan time:
Intel: A Stab in the Back, Means You Are of No Value to Us.

It's very funny that this letter is from the year 2004. As during that entire year AMD defeated Intel on Performance / Watt, Performance / Dollar and imho also just Performance.

[toughluck]

Precisely my point.

I wonder if AMD will offer a counterpoint to that letter? Maybe the full sentence read: "I would never buy AMD ten years ago, but it's amazing how things turn around and now I know I would never buy Intel."

Then again, there's still the option that this note is valid, but we've no idea of context and circumstances.

[oettinger]

A SALES executive... that tells the whole story.

[charlie]

I know Henri pretty well, and he is great for colorful quotes, not all should be taken at face value. I would want to see the full context of that, and what systems were available at the time.

-Charlie

[toughluck]

Are you able to ask him about that one?

[cprompt]

Reading further, it looks to me like Henri was complaining about AMD not having its own platform (chipsets, IGP, etc.) - not commenting on the performance of their CPUs. I think he was internally "politicising" the need to aquire or create such a division (which they did by aquiring ATI).

[PY-Intel]

Originally Posted by oettinger

A SALES executive... that tells the whole story.

Yes, and if context was notebooks then he would be 100% right, he would not buy AMD

[Relayer]

That could be said in the context of marketing. Meaning that average Joe consumer, who doesn't know which processor is really better, would buy Intel not AMD strictly on perception.

For example, "Hell, as bad as we (AMD) market our products it's no wonder Intel eats our lunch. If I didn't work for AMD, I'd buy Intel myself. We should be doing etc. etc. etc..."