SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) -- Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices will sell a campus in Austin, Texas and then rent them, generating about $164 million, in an effort to cut its real-estate costs.
The company said Tuesday that it's selling the buildings to a division of San Francisco real estate investment company Spear Street Capital.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is the world's second-largest maker of microprocessors behind Intel Corp. Both companies have struggled with a shift in consumer demand away from personal computers, which use their chips, toward smartphones and tablets. AMD has cut jobs and sold assets to free up cash for new projects.
For example, the company sold and then leased its Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters in 1998, and did the same with a Canada site in 2008.
AMD will sign a 12-year lease on the Texas buildings, where it has about 1,900 employees. The move, expected to close this month, will result in a $50 million charge in the current quarter, AMD said.
Shares added a penny to $2.60 in premarket trading. They're down 66 percent over the past 12 months.
