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.
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.
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.
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.
Intel’s criticism of the European Commission’s legal acumen clearly has not gone over well in Brussels. The EC today responded to Intel’s claims that the Commission’s antitrust ruling against the company was meted out in error by releasing the full text of its decision and a selection of email correspondence and internal memos that make it clear that Intel probably should have kept its big mouth shut.
“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.
Longtime Intel general counsel Bruce Sewell, who left the company without explanation yesterday, evidently had good reason for doing so: He has taken a new job at Apple. That would certainly explain the “surprise” Intel expressed over his departure. And also why the company was so quick to remove his corporate bio from its Web site.
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.
Intel is a bellwether for the tech sector; as goes Intel, so goes the industry. So, if the company raises its third-quarter revenue forecast because of stronger-than-expected demand for its microprocessors and chipsets, as it did today, then the industry may truly be stabilizing.
The world’s largest mobile phone maker has finally entered the PC market. Not a week after confirming its interest in the netbook market, Nokia leapt into it, uncrating the Booklet 3G–a 2.8-pound “mini-laptop.”
Intel proclaims itself a “Sponsor of Tomorrow,” but the company isn’t going to be a sponsor of the European Union if it can help it. The chip maker filed an appeal today challenging the European Commission’s $1.45 billion antitrust fine against it–the agency’s largest ever in a monopoly-abuse case.
When Intel CEO Paul Otellini said “the worst is now behind us,” he was clearly not referring to AMD. Posting earnings Tuesday afternoon, AMD reported an ugly loss of $330 million, or 49 cents a share–greater than the 47 cents analysts had been expecting.
Three months after Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced that the PC market had reached bottom, the company’s latest financials, which handily beat expectations, seem to have proven him right. “The worst is now behind us,” he noted. And the tech economy is showing signs of muted recovery. The question is: Is that recovery sustainable?
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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