I saw this coming. Have you ever noticed how Dell, IBM, HP hadn’t offered many AMD products until recently? I’ve always been a fan of AMD, and every PC I’ve built has been AMD powered. Granted its years in the making, finally, evidence has surfaced in anti-competitive practices used by Intel. I posted earlier about how Intel is blocking nVidia by removing a key component and being unwilling to license technology to their competitor. Turns out, Intel has been forceful about what happens if a manufacturer, like Dell, IBM, HP, etc., use a competing product. Consumerist has a nice synopsis from the NYTimes article and the actual filing by NYAG Cuomo:
Summary of Evidence against Intel:
Dell
- In 2006, Intel paid Dell almost $2 billion in “rebates,” and in two quarters of that year, rebate payments exceeded Dell’s reported net income
- From 2001 to 2006, Intel granted Dell a privileged position vis-à-vis other computer makers in return for Dell’s agreement not to market any products from Advanced Micro Devices (“AMD”) (NYSE: AMD), Intel’s major competitor
- Intel and Dell collaborated to market microprocessors and servers at prices below cost in order to deprive AMD of strategically important competitive successes
HP
- Intel threatened HP that it would derail development of a server technology on which HP’s future business depended if HP promoted products from AMD
- Intel paid HP hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates in return for HP’s agreement to cap HP’s sales of AMD-based products at 5% of its business desktop PCs
- In 2006, Intel and HP entered into an broader, company-wide agreement to pay HP $925 million to increase Intel’s shares of HP’s sales at AMD’s expense
IBM
- Intel paid IBM $130 million not to launch an AMD-based server product
- Intel threatened to pull funding for joint projects that benefited IBM if IBM marketed AMD-based server products
- Intel pressured IBM to launch another AMD-based server only on an “unbranded” basis
It’ll be interesting to see what else develops from this suite against Intel regarding other competitors including nVidia. I’m glad AMD and nVidia havn’t closed their doors yet, even though they’ve been struggling for a while, to reap the benefit of this suit. I don’t see Intel being able to successfully defend themselves against this suite.
