Not even close to a WMD —

AMD tumbles further, ended 2012 with net loss of $1.18 billion

Company execs do their best to put a positive spin on a bad situation.

On the same day AMD announced it snagged two new executives, it also announced its fourth-quarter earnings. And as anyone who’s followed the company in recent months has come to expect—the report hasn't been pretty.

The company said Tuesday its annual revenue came in at $5.4 billion, down 17 percent when compared to 2011. AMD ended 2012 with a net loss of $1.18 billion.

As Ars writer Andrew Cunningham noted earlier, demand for AMD CPUs is down and analysts think its stock is "un-investable." Not to mention, the company has long been playing catch-up with Intel with respect to laptop and desktop CPU performance and power consumption. Earlier this month, Standard & Poor’s downgraded AMD's corporate rating to a B, saying that it was “vulnerable.”

“2012 was a year in which AMD made some key strategic investments designed to position the company for success in a changing computing landscape by investing in innovative technology and our ambidextrous strategy,” the company wrote in its 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“In addition to our low-power APUs, graphics IP, and reusable design blocks, we believe AMD is well positioned to pursue fast-growing markets including embedded/semi-custom, low-power form factors, and cloud computing.”

As a cost-cutting measure, AMD says it will reduce its workforce further. Yet, it still expects revenue to fall between six and 12 percent in Q1 2013. AMD's ability to take on its competitors—most notably Intel—remains, as always, a tall order.

Channel Ars Technica