amd and intel in court

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Intel Fined in South Korea for Antitrust Rules Breach

Intel Corp., the world's biggest chipmaker, was fined about 26 billion won ($25 million) by South Korea's antitrust regulator for offering discounts to prevent customers from buying products from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

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Federal Trade Commission launches Intel antitrust probe

In the wake of its $25 million antitrust fine from the South Korean Fair Trade Commission, Intel has now come under the eye of U.S. antitrust authorities. The New York Times quotes officials and lawyers as saying the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched an antitrust investigation into the semiconductor giant's activities.

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FTC Intel Antitrust Case Continues, Illustrates Inconsistent International Antitrust Policy

Are AMD's accusations of Intel unjustified? And how do the U.S. antitrust laws stack up to those abroad?

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Report: EU to expand Intel antitrust investigation

Regulators from the European Union have indicated that they are preparing to expand their ongoing probe into Intel's activities, and may file new antitrust charges as early as tomorrow. Such a filing could fan investor concerns over Intel's long-term financial outlook, especially given the current volatility of the US market. Ironically, this news arrives just days after Intel's record-breaking second quarter results.

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'Dirty tricks' or fair play by Intel in rivalry with AMD?
CHIP GIANT BRIBED, BULLIED PC MAKERS, RIVAL AMD CONTENDS
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AMD's accusations

Many documents in the case - scheduled to go to trial in 2010 - have been kept secret under a court protective order. However, in portions of the suit made public, AMD accuses Intel of a broad array of abuses, including:

• Purposely designing Intel's compilers - programs it sells that translate software from independent vendors into a language machines can read - so that computers using AMD chips would suffer degraded performance "or simply crash."

• Offering a high-ranking Tech Data executive a $1 million bribe to stop doing business with AMD. When the executive turned the money down, AMD claims, an Intel representative responded, "How much would it take?"

• Pressuring Hewlett-Packard "to consider firing" an HP executive involved in a proposed deal in which AMD promised HP 1 million free chips to gain access to its business computers in 2002. Consequently, HP took only 160,000 of AMD's free chips.

• Withholding delivery of server chips that Compaq "desperately needed" in 2000 after Compaq did business with AMD, prompting Compaq Chief Executive Michael Capellas to stop buying AMD chips, saying he "had a gun to his head."

• Threatening Acer with "severe consequences" if it went ahead with its plan to promote AMD's new Athlon64 chip in 2003 while delaying payment of at least $15 million it owed Acer. As a result, Acer withdrew its promotions for the AMD chip.

It's unclear whether any of the companies that AMD contends Intel bullied have cooperated with regulatory agencies in Asia and Europe, which have issued only terse summaries of their investigations. It's also not known whether any of those companies will confirm AMD's allegations in the lawsuit or whether they have provided evidence against Intel in the ongoing probes by the FTC and New York.

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