Sweet.
We always knew that this is how it would play out in the end – Intel on its knees in front of AMD’s open fly.
Uncork the Dom Perignon
Today Intel agreed to fork out a whopping $1.25 billion to AMD to settle all outstanding legal disputes between the two companies.
The settlement covers antitrust litigation and patent cross license disputes.
Intel also promised to behave itself in future by agreeing to abide by a set of business practice provisions.
In exchange for Intel’s moolah and capitulation, AMD will drop all pending litigation including the case in the U.S. District Court in Delaware and two cases pending in Japan.
No Surprise Here
You see, even as AMD’s five-year-old complaint dragged on in court and like a ravished maiden Intel kept protesting its innocence we had no doubt in our mind that the chip giant had abused its power as the dominant supplier of PC microprocessors to strong-arm/induce PC companies into buying its chips to the detriment of rival supplier AMD.
This is hardly the first time we’ve seen a big information technology vendor engage in prohibited practices.
Large technology Goliaths like Intel or Microsoft find it hard to tolerate Davids like AMD or Netscape nipping at their heels with better products.
Here’s what the two companies said in a joint statement:
While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development.
AMD also intends to withdraw all of its regulatory complaints worldwide.
What happens to the government antitrust suits against Intel in Europe and the U.S. remains to be seen. We hope they move forward.
Intel’s $1.25b Mea Culpa for Buggering AMD added by SearchIndia.com on
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At the end of the day Intel is a better Chip. AMD should use the money to improve their processors
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: AMD should use the money to improve their processors
We hope they do.
Speaking from memory, a few years ago Intel was going through a bad patch and AMD under then CEO Hector Ruiz was surging ahead. We saw some good years from AMD.
Unfortunately, AMD couldn’t sustain its performance and Hector Ruiz resigned last year.
AMD now needs a strong, inspiring figure (someone like its flamboyant co-founder Jerry Sanders) as its leader.
intel has this policy of killing its own products …before competitors do so …they keep coming up with new and better products….and phase out the the current one even if its doing well
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: intel has this policy of killing its own products …before competitors do so …
This is a microprocessor company that continuously updates its products and architecture.
Your point of Intel killing its older products is hardly unusual in the fast-paced IT/tech sector.
Also, applications in the last 10 years have become very resource intensive (processor + RAM)…so Intel can hardly keep selling older chips if it wants to keep getting the business of PC/server vendors. After all, Intel chips are only building blocks that go into other products, not end products themselves.
Considering Intel gets the bulk of its revenues from microprocessors now (after it exited the DRAM segment some 20 years back), it can’t afford to screw up its ‘core’ business.
2. On the x86 architecture front (whether desktop or server), Intel has little competition with the exception of AMD.