13 Apr 05. Advanced Micro Devices announced it was spinning off its Spansion flash memory business as its first quarter earnings took another big hit from the loss-making business. Spansion, a 12 year-old joint venture with Fujitsu of Japan that makes memory chips for mobile phones and other devices, announced an initial public offering in New York expected to raise as much as $600m. AMD said sales of $447m for the memory group in the first quarter were down 29 per cent on a year earlier and 11 per cent compared to the fourth quarter. Operating losses nearly tripled from the fourth quarter's $39m to $110m. AMD's bigger rival Intel has made dramatic gains in market share with an aggressive pricing strategy for NOR flash. AMD has been under pressure from analysts and investors to act decisively to prevent Spansion becoming a permanent drag on its profitable processor division and overall earnings.