AMD: 'We're not for sale'

Chip maker AMD has strenuously denied claims that the company has hired a bank to seek a potential buyer, which could include the sale of the entire company.

The rumor kicked off when three sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that AMD had hired J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to "explore options" ranging from a "sale of its portfolio of patents" to "outright sale of the company," although the latter option is described as "not the main option".

While J.P. Morgan refused to comment on the rumor, AMD spokesperson Drew Prairie denied the claim, stating that: "[AMD is] not actively pursuing a sale of the company or significant assets at this time."

Prairie went on to say that, "AMD's board and management believe that 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".

Things have not been good for AMD lately, with the third quarter results coming in "weaker than expected" and the company shed around 15 percent of its workforce. That said, the company is actively diversifying.

AMD shares have fallen by 60 percent over the past year.

AMD is already making plans to move into the ARM server market, and another report suggests that AMD's A-10 APU chips could be at the heart of the next-generation PlayStation console. Earlier this month the company also released a new range of Opteron server processors, a mix of quad-core, 8-core, 12-core and 16-core parts ranging in clock speeds from 2.3 GHz to 3.5 GHz.