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For its fourth quarter ending December 25, 2005, the company notched up record fourth quarter sales of $1.84bn, which contributed towards a net income of $96 million ($0.21 per share).

Note that the results include a non-cash charge of $110 million, to mark the reduction of AMD's ownership in the Spansion memory business - down to 37.9 per cent as a result of Spansion's IPO (initial public offering). Without this charge, AMD would have recorded a profit of $205 million ($0.45 per share).

Analysts, reportedly, had been expecting around $0.45 per share, but reacted positively to Spansion finally being spun off.

'AMD's growth rate increased in the fourth quarter resulting in continued market share gains across server, desktop and mobile product lines,' said AMD's chief financial officer, Robert J. Rivet. 'In addition to solid execution against our

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product and technology strategies, we made significant strides in the quarter to improve our balance sheet by significantly reducing our debt and increasing our cash and short-term investment balance to $1.8 billion.'

The strong processor sales were driven by an increase in both units and average selling prices, said AMD, and an acceleration of its commercial server and client businesses.

Server, mobile and desktop processor sales all grew significantly compared to the third quarter of 2005, declared the company.

The fourth quarter figures included memory sales from Spansion subsidiary up until 20 December, which marked the IPO of the joint AMD Fujitsu venture.

For the full year, AMD achieved record sales of $5.85bn, a 17 percent increase from 2004, with net income of $165 million ($0.40 per share). This compares with sales in 2004 of $5.00bn and a net income of $91m ($0.25 per share).

In terms of outlook, the company remains in bullish mode. It expects first quarter sales to be 'flat to slightly down seasonally'. If this target is achieved, it would represent a 70 per cent increase from comparable sales in the first quarter of 2005.

AMD's shares had risen 11 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange, at the time of writing.

You can read the full financial figures on the Investor Relations section of the AMD website.