Some Console for AMD

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Co (AMD) is a US based semiconductor company which manufactures processors and related technologies. The main products of the company include microprocessors, graphics processors, motherboard chipsets, embedded processors, and embedded systems applications.

The company’s stock price has increased from $2.53 to $3.9 soaring by 54% year to date (YTD). The stock price of the company rose after the Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) decisions to use AMD chips in its new consoles PS4 and Xbox 1 respectively.

AMD is very popular in gaming community and in the console market its graphics processing units (GPUs) are performing well compared to the GPUs of its major competitor Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA). Traditionally, AMD has been in the business of manufacturing X86 processors for PCs and servers but after the acquisition of ATI in 2006, the company entered into the business of GPUs. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are the major players in the console market and all of them are using AMD chips. Microsoft is using customized version of AMD Jaguar brand in Xbox 1 and Sony is using another customized version of Jaguar in PS4. Read more

Pfizer’s Pill for Low Profit

Pfizer Inc. (PFE) is a biopharmaceutical company with operations throughout the world. The business of the company is divided into two areas: biopharmaceutical and other products, with the latter largely comprising of animal health and healthcare.

Business segment:

The biopharmaceutical business is the major segment of the company and in the first quarter of 2013, it constituted around 85.53% of the revenue, followed by the other products segment which contributes around 14.47% of the revenues.  The biopharmaceutical business has five business segments which include: Primary Care (23.99%), Specialty Care (23.44%), Oncology (2.76%), Established Products (17.93%) and Emerging Markets (17.42%).  The other products segment includes animal health care (8.07%), consumer health care (6.01%) and other products (0.39%).

Geographical expansion:

The United States contributes the 40% of the company’s revenue, followed by Europe (22%), emerging markets (22%), and the rest of the world (16%). After the United States, Japan is the second biggest market of the company, constituting around 10% of the revenue.

Pfizer is considered as the research leader in the pharmaceutical industry as every year the company spends billions of dollars on research and development. Read more