Earlier Thursday, Microsoft announced an 11 percent drop in net income for the December quarter, while revenue rose just 2 percent, showing how the recession is affecting even the strongest companies.

Intel, AMD's larger rival, said on Wednesday it would cut up to 6,000 jobs worldwide and close four chip plants. A week earlier it announced that its fourth-quarter profits had plummeted 90 percent from a year earlier, on a 23 percent drop in revenue.

AMD is in the midst of a plan to break itself into two companies to help turn its business around. The plan would see AMD continue to design and market its chips but spin off its costly manufacturing business into a separate company, called The Foundry Co., that will be owned mostly by an investment company in Abu Dhabi.

The plan has now cleared all the major regulatory hurdles, Meyer said, and AMD's shareholders will vote on Feb. 16 whether to approve the deal. AMD expects to complete the deal as soon as the next day after that, he said.

Intel has thrown up a last-minute question about the deal, however. It has asked to meet with AMD to discuss whether formation of the new company will breach provisions of existing patent cross-licensing agreements between Intel and AMD, according to a regulatory filing by AMD on Thursday.