AMD: Spin-off interruptus

It was supposed to be a formality. Shareholders of Advanced Micro Devices were simply supposed to give their thumbs-up to a spin-off of the company's manufacturing business at its shareholder's meeting and the deal would be done.

But the company needed at least 50 percent of the shareholders to respond with a vote. Only 42 percent did so, according to a Wall Street Journal report. So the shareholder's meeting has been adjourned until Feb. 18 so that investors have more time to vote.

It's pretty much expected that shareholders will approve the spin-off, potentially clearing away some of that black economic cloud that's currently hovering over the company. Last month, the company reported its 9th straight loss and said it would eliminate 1,100 jobs - roughly 9 percent of its workforce - in the first quarter. It also announced 401(k) match suspensions and widespread salary cuts, all the way up to CEO.

As a joint venture largely funded by Abu Dhabi investment companies, the spin-off - called The Foundry Company - would bring in the billions of dollars that AMD was struggling to find to construct state-of-the-art chip plants needed to build the smaller, faster and more energy-efficient chips that compete with Intel’s.

Last month, AMD said that rival Intel - which also had a terrible fourth quarter - expressed concern about the spin-off, a move that the company called "another attempt by our competitor to cause uncertainty.” As for the delay, Caris & Co. analyst Betsy Van Hees tells the Journal:

It's just a delay, and a delay that could consequently push out the closing date of the venture. We were largely expecting this to be just a formality, so this does certainly give us increasing cause for concern.