AMD 2007 Annual Report Download - page 24

Table of Contents
without penalty. Generally, in light of current industry practice and experience and the fact that substantially our entire order backlog is cancelable, we do not
believe that such agreements provide meaningful backlog figures or are necessarily indicative of actual sales for any succeeding period.
Employees
As of December 29, 2007, we had approximately 16,420 employees.
Environmental Regulations
Many aspects of our business operations and products are regulated by domestic and international environmental laws and regulations. These regulations
include limitations on discharge of pollutants to air, water, and soil; remediation requirements; product chemical content limitations; manufacturing chemical use
and handling restrictions; pollution control requirements; waste minimization considerations; and requirements with respect to treatment, transport, storage and
disposal of solid and hazardous wastes. If we fail to comply with any of the applicable environmental regulations we may be subject to fines, suspension of
production, alteration of our manufacturing processes, import/export restrictions, sales limitations, and/or criminal and civil liabilities. Existing or future
regulations could require us to procure expensive pollution abatement or remediation equipment; to modify product designs; or to incur other expenses to comply
with environmental regulations. Any failure to adequately control the use, disposal or storage, or discharge of hazardous substances could expose us to future
liabilities that could have a material adverse effect on our business. We believe we are in material compliance with applicable environmental requirements and do
not expect those requirements to result in material expenditures in the foreseeable future.
Environmental laws are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent over time. For example, the European Union and China are
two among a growing number of jurisdictions that have enacted in recent years restrictions on the use of lead, among other chemicals, in electronic products.
These regulations affect semiconductor packaging. Other regulatory requirements potentially affecting our manufacturing processes and the design and
marketing of our products are in development throughout the world. We have management systems in place to identify and ensure compliance with such
requirements and have budgeted for foreseeable associated expenditures. However, we cannot assure you that future environmental legal requirements will not
become more stringent or costly in the future. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our costs of complying with current and future environmental and health and
safety laws, and our liabilities arising from past and future releases of, or exposure to, hazardous substances will not have a material adverse effect on us.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Risks Related to Our Business
Intel Corporation’s dominance of the microprocessor market and its aggressive business practices may limit our ability to compete effectively.
Intel Corporation has dominated the market for microprocessors for many years. Intel’s significant financial resources enable it to market its products
aggressively, to target our customers and our channel partners with special incentives, and to discipline customers who do business with us. These aggressive
activities have in the past and are likely in the future to result in lower unit sales and average selling prices for our products and adversely affect our margins and
profitability.
Intel also manufactures and sells integrated graphics chipsets bundled with their microprocessors and is a dominant competitor with respect to this portion
of the business. Intel could leverage its dominance in the microprocessor market to sell its integrated chipsets. Moreover, computer manufacturers are
increasingly using integrated graphics chipsets, particularly for notebooks, because they cost significantly less than traditional discrete graphics components
while offering reasonably good graphics performance for most mainstream PCs.
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Source: ADVANCED MICRO DEVIC, 10-K, February 26, 2008