Commitments and Contingencies |
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| Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commitments and Contingencies |
Commitments and Contingencies
Warranties and Indemnities
The Company generally warrants that its products sold to its customers will conform to the Company’s approved specifications and be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use and service for one year. Subject to certain exceptions, the Company also offers a three-year limited warranty to end users for only those central processing unit (CPU) and AMD accelerated processing unit (APU) products that are commonly referred to as “processors in a box” and for certain server CPU products. The Company also offers extended limited warranties to certain customers of “tray” microprocessor products and/or professional graphics products who have written agreements with the Company and target their computer systems at the commercial and/or embedded markets.
Changes in the Company’s estimated liability for product warranty were as follows:
In addition to product warranties, the Company, from time to time in its normal course of business, indemnifies other parties, with whom it enters into contractual relationships, including customers, lessors and parties to other transactions with the Company, with respect to certain matters. In these limited matters, the Company has agreed to hold certain third parties harmless against specific types of claims or losses, such as those arising from a breach of representations or covenants, third-party claims that the Company’s products, when used for their intended purpose(s) and under specific conditions, infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party, or other specified claims made against the indemnified party. It is not possible to determine the maximum potential amount of liability under these indemnification obligations due to the unique facts and circumstances that are likely to be involved in each particular claim and indemnification provision. Historically, payments made by the Company under these obligations have not been material.
Contingencies
Securities Class Action
On January 15, 2014, a class action lawsuit captioned Hatamian v. AMD, et al., C.A. No. 3:14-cv-00226 (the Hatamian Lawsuit) was filed against the Company in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaint purports to assert claims against the Company and certain individual officers for alleged violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act), and Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act. The plaintiffs seek to represent a proposed class of all persons who purchased or otherwise acquired the Company's common stock during the period April 4, 2011 through October 18, 2012. The complaint seeks damages allegedly caused by alleged materially misleading statements and/or material omissions by the Company and the individual officers regarding the Company's 32nm technology and “Llano” product, which statements and omissions, the plaintiffs claim, allegedly operated to artificially inflate the price paid for the Company's common stock during the period. The complaint seeks unspecified compensatory damages, attorneys’ fees and costs. On July 7, 2014, the Company filed a motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims. On March 31, 2015, the Court denied the motion to dismiss. On May 14, 2015, the Company filed its answer to plaintiffs’ corrected amended complaint. On September 4, 2015, plaintiffs filed their motion for class certification, and on March 16, 2016, the Court granted plaintiffs' motion. A court-ordered mediation held in January 2016 did not result in a settlement of the lawsuit. The discovery process has concluded. Plaintiffs and defendants have filed cross-motions for summary judgment, and briefing on those motions was completed in July 2017.
Based upon information presently known to management, the Company believes that the potential liability, if any, will not have a material adverse effect on its financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.
Shareholder Derivative Lawsuits
On March 20, 2014, a purported shareholder derivative lawsuit captioned Wessels v. Read, et al., Case No. 1:14 cv-262486 (Wessels) was filed against the Company (as a nominal defendant only) and certain of its directors and officers in the Santa Clara County Superior Court of the State of California. The complaint purports to assert claims against the Company and certain individual directors and officers for breach of fiduciary duty, waste of corporate assets and unjust enrichment. The complaint seeks damages allegedly caused by alleged materially misleading statements and/or material omissions by the Company and the individual directors and officers regarding its 32nm technology and “Llano” product, which statements and omissions, the plaintiffs claim, allegedly operated to artificially inflate the price paid for the Company's common stock during the period. On April 27, 2015, a similar purported shareholder derivative lawsuit captioned Christopher Hamilton and David Hamilton v. Barnes, et al., Case No. 5:15-cv-01890 (Hamilton) was filed against the Company (as a nominal defendant only) and certain of its directors and officers in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The case was transferred to the judge handling the Hatamian Lawsuit and is now Case No. 4:15-cv-01890.
On September 29, 2015, a similar purported shareholder derivative lawsuit captioned Jake Ha v Caldwell, et al., Case No. 3:15-cv-04485 (Ha) was filed against the Company (as a nominal defendant only) and certain of its directors and officers in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit also seeks a court order voiding the stockholder vote on the Company’s 2015 proxy. The case was transferred to the judge handling the Hatamian Lawsuit and is now Case No. 4:15-cv-04485. The Wessels, Hamilton and Ha shareholder derivative lawsuits are currently stayed.
Based upon information presently known to management, the Company believes that the potential liability, if any, will not have a material adverse effect on its financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.
ZiiLabs Litigation
On December 16, 2016, a patent lawsuit captioned ZiiLabs v. AMD, C.A. No. 2:16-cv-1418 in the United States District Court for Eastern District of Texas (the “ZiiLabs Lawsuit”) was filed against the Company in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges that the Company infringed four patents related generally to graphics processors and memory controllers. The complaint seeks damages, interest, and attorneys’ fees. ZiiLabs filed several similar lawsuits against other companies on the same day. On the same date, ZiiLabs also filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (“USITC”) pursuant to Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 against the Company and several other companies asserting the same four patents (“USITC Proceeding”). The complaint seeks a limited exclusion order barring the importation of certain products that contain AMD memory controllers and graphics processors. Some of the Company’s customers are also named respondents. On January 18, 2017, the USITC announced that it would institute the investigation, entitled 337-TA-1037, In the Matter of Certain Graphics Processors, DDR Memory Controllers, and Products Containing the Same. Discovery is ongoing, and the target date for the USITC to issue a final determination is June 25, 2018. The ZiiLabs Lawsuit has been stayed pending completion of the USITC Proceeding. On July 7, 2017, ZiiLabs filed a motion to stay the USITC Proceeding pending finalization of a settlement reached in principle. The Administrative Law Judge granted ZiiLab's motion on July 10, 2017. On July 20, 2017, the Company obtained a license to patents-in-suit. Accordingly, the Company expects that the Company and ZiiLabs will, in the near future, ask the USITC and the Court to dismiss proceedings as to the Company. The resulting settlement obligation was not material. The applicable amount of the patent license will be capitalized on the Company's balance sheet in the third quarter of 2017 and amortized over its useful life.
Dickey Litigation
On October 26, 2015, a putative class action complaint captioned Dickey et al. v. AMD, No. 15-cv-04922 was filed against the Company in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Plaintiffs allege that the Company misled consumers by using the term "eight cores" in connection with the marketing of certain AMD FX CPUs that are based on the Company's “Bulldozer” core architecture. The plaintiffs allege these products cannot perform eight calculations simultaneously, without restriction. The plaintiffs seek to obtain damages under several causes of action for a nationwide class of consumers who allegedly were deceived into purchasing certain Bulldozer-based CPUs that were marketed as containing eight cores. The plaintiffs also seek attorneys' fees. On December 21, 2015, the Company filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, which was granted on April 7, 2016. The plaintiffs then filed an amended complaint with a narrowed putative class definition, which the Court dismissed upon the Company's motion on October 31, 2016. The plaintiffs subsequently filed a second amended complaint, and the Company filed a motion to dismiss the second amended complaint. On June 14, 2017, the Court issued an order granting in part and denying in part the Company's motion to dismiss, and allowing the plaintiffs to move forward with a portion of their complaint. The putative class definition does not encompass the Company's Ryzen or EYPC processors.
Based upon information presently known to management, the Company believes that the potential liability, if any, will not have a material adverse effect on its financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.
Other Legal Matters
The Company is a defendant or plaintiff in various actions that arose in the normal course of business. With respect to these matters, based on the management’s current knowledge, the Company believes that the amount or range of reasonably possible loss, if any, will not, either individually or in the aggregate, have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
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