Playing dirty to stay ahead of AMD

Intel, Intel, Intel, what have you done?

We will continue this article from where we left off last week. If you missed last week's article you can view it at www.jamaica-star.com.

On May 13 AMD finally got some of the best news they heard in their 40 years of existence. The ruling of the case which began in 2000 was finally out. AMD had won but this wasn't any ordinary victory, Intel was ordered to pay a stunning, record-breaking US$1.45 billion dollars. This is the highest fine ever ordered by the EU (European Union) and Intel had added another record to its books. I don't think this is a record they will be happy about keeping though.

What exactly did Intel do to AMD to be punished so severely? Well, according to Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for Competition, she said her officials had proof of Intel's activities in the form of email messages collected during surprise raids and formal responses to its inquiry from companies concerned.

antitrust violations

The EU ruling was made based on two acts of antitrust violations. First were the rebates that Intel offered companies such as Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell, NEC, Acer and Media Saturn Holding (MSH), Europe's largest PC retailer, to purchase most or all of their processors from Intel.

The second antitrust violation Intel was accused of was a little harder to prove but nevertheless, proof or no proof, the EU fined them anyway. This was the act of Intel paying the above-mentioned companies money to hold back computers made with AMD processors. They were also accused of paying to hold back machines with AMD's newly developed hi-end processors. Hmmm, could these charges be the reason why Intel gained so much of the microprocessor market?

Giuliano Meroni, president of AMD's European unit, said in a statement that the decision "will shift the power from an abusive monopolist to computer makers, retailers and, above all, PC consumers." Intel has denied the charges, arguing that the decision ignored "the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor marketplace." A few days after hearing the ruling, Intel's spokesperson, Chuck Mulloy, had this to say: "Our position is that the decision was wrong and we said that from the day it was announced." Mulloy also said in an interview. "It was wrong, wrong on many levels."

In announcing the fine, the EU competition commissioner said, "Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years." The EU ordered Intel to stop offering rebates that were conditioned on buying less of a rival's product, or not buying them at all, which they said had helped Intel maintain a share of at least 80 per cent of the microprocessor sales market from October 2002 to December 2007.

Look out for part four next Wednesday as the EU presents to the public the evidence they have against Intel.

For questions and comments,

Technical Writer, Kamar McIntyre,

Tel: 849-9381

Email: kamar_mcintyre@yahoo.com.