With Intel’s longstanding legal dispute with AMD resolved, Douglas Melamed, the company’s new general counsel, will have one less thing to worry about when he starts work–not that he lacks the experience to deal with it.
Earlier today, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices announced a comprehensive agreement to end their outstanding legal disputes. After the jump, AMD CEO Dirk Meyer’s official remarks about the agreement.
Wow. Intel and AMD’s seemingly endless legal battles have finally ended. The two companies said early Thursday that they have reached a comprehensive agreement that resolves their many antitrust and patent disputes. Under its terms, Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion and agree to “abide by a set of business practice provisions” presumably crafted to temper its alleged anticompetitive practices.
AMD has been carping about Intel’s alleged anticompetitive acts without satisfaction for so long that the company evidently feels entitled to a bit of gloating now that its rival has found itself in the legal crosshairs of the European Union and New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, among others. In remarks made during AMD Financial Analyst Day, CEO Dirk Meyer said that Intel’s current legal woes “ratify” AMD’s allegations.
Worldwide chip sales have slipped deep into the mud over the past year and they’ll continue to do so until year’s end. But they’ll begin to improve after that.
Looks like it’s going to be a very busy fall for Intel legal. This morning, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the company, alleging that it violated state and federal laws with a “systematic campaign” of illegal conduct.
2009 semiconductor sales are down from 2008 by nearly record amounts, but they’re improving. That’s the latest word from the Semiconductor Industry Association, which said today that global chip sales rose in September from the previous month–the seventh straight month of gains.
Looks like AMD has benefited from the same favorable PC updraft that’s lifting Intel. On Thursday, the chip maker reported a narrower third-quarter loss than expected, thanks to “strong demand” for its microprocessors and graphics chips.
As the world’s largest maker of computer chips, Intel is considered a bellwether for the wider industry. So the fact that the company’s latest revenue and profit numbers handily beat expectations is a very good sign indeed.
Worldwide sales of semiconductors in August rose five percent over July, racking up their sixth month of consecutive gains, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. Great news were it not for the fact that at $19.1 billion, August sales were down a horrific 16.1 percent year-over-year. Furthermore, for the first eight months of 2009, sales are at $133.8 billion–about 21.3 percent below what they were at this time last year.
Looks like the worst is once again behind us. In remarks at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said the PC industry is headed for recovery, albeit slowly.
“Manifestly disproportionate.” That’s how Intel describes the record $1.45 billion antitrust fine levied against it by the European Union, one the company evidently believes was meted out in error.
Those Apple tablet rumors just never let up, do they? Not a week after the company’s latest media event and they’re already back in force. The latest, from China Economic News, claims the device is being prepped for a February debut at a price somewhere between $799 and $999.
Pat Gelsinger isn’t the only Intel veteran leaving the company amid the big management restructuring announced today. Longtime general counsel Bruce Sewell is taking his leave as well. Which is odd, since Sewell has been quarterbacking Intel’s fight against antitrust allegations at home and abroad since, well, since they were first brought against the company.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
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