Intel Said to Face Antitrust Investigation...

[Zim Hosein]

WASHINGTON ? The Federal Trade Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation of Intel, the world?s largest maker of computer microprocessors, for anticompetitive conduct, government officials and lawyers involved in the proceeding said Friday.

The officials and lawyers said that in recent days Intel, its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices, and several of the world?s largest personal computer makers that buy semiconductors from the two companies have begun to receive subpoenas from the commission.

The investigation into accusations that Intel?s pricing policies have been designed to maintain a near-monopoly on the microprocessor market was authorized by William E. Kovacic, the new chairman of the trade commission, and has the support of the agency?s other commissioners.

It reversed a decision by his predecessor, Deborah P. Majoras, who had been blocking the formal inquiry for many months, frustrating other senior commission officials and some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Ms. Majoras is a former senior official in the antitrust division at the Justice Department who was an architect of the Bush administration?s antitrust settlement with Microsoft in 2001. She stepped down two months ago to become the general counsel at Procter and Gamble.

There was no immediate comment from Intel or A.M.D.

There was no immediate comment from Intel or A.M.D.

Since it will almost certainly be many months before the commission decides whether to make a case against Intel, as European and Asian regulators have already done, the investigation could mark an important early test for the next administration on antitrust and competition policy.

Technically independent of the White House, the trade commission is led by appointees of the president. An administration seeking to show that it is more vigorous on antitrust policy than the Bush administration could use the Intel investigation to lay down an early marker.

A.M.D. has waged a global legal and public relations campaign against Intel hoping to persuade American and foreign regulators that Intel?s pricing practices violate antitrust laws.

The fight between the two ? over a market that generates revenue of more than $225 billion a year ? is among the largest antitrust matters pending before American and foreign regulators, and is considered to be among the most important since the antitrust cases brought against Microsoft in the 1990s.

This is going to be interesting I must say!

Intel Said to Face Antitrust Investigation

 

[Alyx]

Seems to me that AMD just can't hack it. They keep slipping more behind and I think it would have happened even if they had money. I'm sure they will get some settlement out of this but not fast enough to help them get them caught up. In this instance I think the antitrust stuff will only hurt the consumer.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Alyx
Seems to me that AMD just can't hack it. They keep slipping more behind and I think it would have happened even if they had money. I'm sure they will get some settlement out of this but not fast enough to help them get them caught up. In this instance I think the antitrust stuff will only hurt the consumer.

This is about the old stuff, back when Athlon was kicking P4's ass but was getting nowhere in the big name market.

 

[ultimatebob]

Hey now... it's not Intel's fault that they bought ATI, strayed from their core business, and allowed Intel to kick their ass with their Core 2 CPU's.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

The investigation into accusations that Intel?s pricing policies have been designed to maintain a near-monopoly on the microprocessor market

Anyone have more information on what they mean by that exactly?

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
The investigation into accusations that Intel?s pricing policies have been designed to maintain a near-monopoly on the microprocessor market

Anyone have more information on what they mean by that exactly?

Intel has been known to give heafty discounts as long as a company remains Intel only IIRC.

 

[Aimster]

AMD won yesterday in South Korea because of something like this. Intel has to pay $25million I think it was. In the U.S courts that sum will probably be higher

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
The investigation into accusations that Intel?s pricing policies have been designed to maintain a near-monopoly on the microprocessor market

Anyone have more information on what they mean by that exactly?

Intel has been known to give heafty discounts as long as a company remains Intel only IIRC.

I was thinking about why that is wrong, and I guess it comes down to that behavior not allowing competitors to come into the market at all... or at least it makes it very hard to do.

I'd actually like to see AMD come back stronger, if they can't maintain their business, and all we're left with is Intel, that would be very bad for the consumer.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
The investigation into accusations that Intel?s pricing policies have been designed to maintain a near-monopoly on the microprocessor market

Anyone have more information on what they mean by that exactly?

Intel was already taken to task in other countries, Google should turn up something. I believe it happened in Japan and Europe, though I could be wrong as it has been a while. If a company that provided product to Intel also provided product to AMD, Intel basically blacklisted them if I recall correctly.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: Alyx
Seems to me that AMD just can't hack it. They keep slipping more behind and I think it would have happened even if they had money. I'm sure they will get some settlement out of this but not fast enough to help them get them caught up. In this instance I think the antitrust stuff will only hurt the consumer.

How so Alyx?

 

[jpeyton]

This investigation goes back quite a ways; it has nothing to do with AMDs recent downturn.

I say it's about time. There was obvious antitrust violations occurring during the P4 era when Intel was muscling companies from switching to a universally better product (Athlon 64/X2).

 

[ViRGE]

The FTC sure took its sweet time. AMD has been complaining about this for years, the FTC should have started this 3+ years ago when Intel was still misbehaving.

In related news, the current Intel/AMD trial, first started in 2005, has been pushed back to 2010, resolution will probably come in 2012 after AMD is dead.

 

[91TTZ]

Intel's dirty dealings have been going on for a long, long time.

When I worked for an unnamed motherboard manufacturer in 1997-1998, we couldn't advertise that our boards supported Intel as well as AMD and Cyrix CPUs. Intel had a MVP program that would entitle you to get chipsets for a lower cost. It wasn't a very exclusive program, and nearly all the manufacturers were on that MVP list. If you dared be bold enough to state that your boards running their chipsets supported AMD or Cyrix chips, you'd quickly find that you're not on Intel's "MVP" list anymore. Since the motherboard business is such a low-margin business, the price going up even a few dollars would kill any profit you made. Therefore you had to play by Intel's rules.