Aceshardware

"No matter how it tries, Intel just can't shake those pesky antitrust monkeys off its back: the attorney general of New York today filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the chipmaker, saying it unfairly prevented AMD from competing under state and federal law. That's pretty much what the EU just fined Intel $1.45b for in May and exactly what AMD itself is suing Intel for in Delaware, so we're guessing things are a little busy for Chipzilla's lawyers right now -- and it's just going to get worse, as the smart money says this is all just a precursor to the Federal Trade Commission dropping the hammer sometime soon. Hey, maybe this would be a good time to for Intel to distract everyone with some USB 3.0 chipsets?"

"The lawsuit charges that Intel violated state and federal laws by abusing its dominant position in the chip market to keep its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices, at bay. Intel has faced similar lawsuits in Asia and Europe, and in May the European Commission fined the company a record $1.45 billion for antitrust violations.
“Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. “Intel’s actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices.”

135. On November 4, 2005 Otellini reported internally in a “Confidential — DO NOT FORWARD” email about “one of the most emotional calls I have ever, ever had with [Michael Dell].” In this email, Otellini wrote:

- [Michael Dell] opened by saying “I am tired of losing business” … he repeated it 3-4 times. I said nothing and waited.
- He has been traveling around the USA. He feels they are losing all the high margin business to AMD-based sku’s …
- He is ‘tired of being behind for 4 years (when I protested that it was 2, he said, no the last 2 years, this year, and next year).
- As a result, “Dell is no longer seen as a thought leader”

136. On Nov. 10, 2005, Michael Dell followed up with an email to Otellini: “We have lost the performance leadership and it’s seriously impacting our business in several areas.” Otellini’s reply: “There is nothing new here. Our product roadmap is what it is. It is improving rapidly daily. It will deliver increasingly leadership products … Additionally, we are transferring over $1B per year to Dell for meet comp efforts. This was judged by your team to be more than sufficient to compensate for the competitive issues.”

137. Michael Dell, however, continued to press home to Intel its performance deficit and its effects on Dell. On November 24, 2005 he capped an email exchange with Otellini by writing: “None of the current benchmarks and reviews say that Intel based systems are better than AMD. We are losing the hearts, minds and wallets of our best customers.”

139. On February 16, 2006, Intel took note of a service report in which Dell’s CEO Kevin Rollins had said that Dell had “made no plans to begin using” AMD chips. “Finally something positive” commented one Intel executive. Otellini commented: “The best friend money can buy.”

***
140. By April 2006, Dell’s relationship with Intel reached a breaking point. As Michael Dell wrote: “Intel – we overestimated both their ability to execute and our true competitive position with them and we underestimated AMD. And we relied too much on rebates from Intel.”

141. Dell was finally ready to act, despite the pressure and incentives from Intel. In an April 29 email to other top Dell executives, Michael Dell wrote: “We have been looking at the situation for a long time, and have decided to introduce a broad range of AMD based systems into our product line to provide the choice our customers are asking for.”

142. The reaction of Craig Barrett, Intel’s Board Chairman, was unequivocal: Dell should immediately be deprived of the payments it had long enjoyed in return for its willingness not to offer AMD products, and should start paying “list prices.” Barrett told Ottelini: “[T]hey have just signaled they are only interested in being a transaction based customer. I think you
should reply in kind. Not a time for weakness on our part. Stop writing checks immediately and put them back on list prices asap.” (Emphasis added).

143. The direction Otellini gave his subordinates the next day was consistent with Barrett’s advice. Intel should make clear to Dell that if Dell offered any AMD products all of the “mcp” payments Dell received from Intel would be at risk – just as Dell had always feared: “[W]e should be [pre]pared to remove all mcp and related programs. Post haste… then we ought to enter negotiations.”

Yet another ambitious state AG hopes to launch his political career with a high profile
and lurid drawn lawsuit against a rich and successful corporation with few operations
in that state but a few competitors with a large or growing presence.

Anyone reading the filing should keep in mind what is in quotes and what is simply the
breathless running narrative much of which could have come from the mouth of a few
AMD executives I could think of.

Good ol' Andy is on a roll padding his little-man-against-giant-evil-corp credentials.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ny-oth ... 2009-10-30

I bet the little prick can almost taste the governor's office.

Yup, everyone should ignore Intel's blatant illegal and criminal activities and focus on a conspiracy theory instead.
Here's an idea:

go drive your head back in the sand you little bitch.

Funny how the NY AG is ignoring the gross violation of fiduciary duty by the
former chairman of Glofo in disclosing insider information directly involving
the spin-out of a subsidiary being financed to the tune of hundreds of millions
of dollars by the taxpayers of NY in favour of attacking legitimate discounting
and co-marketing practices of the company primarily responsible for keeping
the U.S. in the semi game for the last few decades.

Hey genius, next time you are in a grocery store on a hot day and pull a soda
from a cooler ask the store manager who owns the cooler and how he decides
how much shelf space he allocates to each supplier.

Hey genius, next time you are in a grocery store on a hot day and pull a soda
from a cooler ask the store manager who owns the cooler and how he decides
how much shelf space he allocates to each supplier.

Does Intel own Dell? (Perhaps in all but name...)

Gee, I didn't realize it was legitimate to discount your products over 100% of their cost. Usually we call that "dumping" and when foreign companies try to do that in the US market we usually prosecute them. Are you saying since Intel is a US company it's OK?

And most reports show that Coke and Pepsi have about equal market share.

However I am curious about the claim that AMD offered a million processors free to HP. That
would definitely be selling below cost..

Predatory Pricing
A deliberate strategy, usually by a dominant firm, of driving competitors out
of the market by setting very low prices or selling below the firm’s incremental
costs of producing the output (often equated for practical purposes with average
variable costs). Once the predator has successfully driven out existing competitors
and deterred entry of new firms, it can raise prices and earn higher profits.

BTW the EU and Japanese (and AFIK Korean) attorney generals that prosecuted intel for monopoly abuse were and are not running for election. I guess they are all just AMD fanboys and fangirls for convicting intel.