Intel settles with AMD for $1.25bn

Lawsuits wrapped up with cash, promises of good behavior

By Timothy Prickett Morgan • Get more from this author

Posted in PCs & Chips, 12th November 2009 14:58 GMT

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If you were looking forward to a long and protracted antitrust battle between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, you're out of luck. The two companies have buried the hatchet and settled all outstanding intellectual property and antitrust lawsuits.

Under the settlement between the rival chip companies, Intel and AMD have signed a five-year cross licensing agreement and are letting go of any claims they made against each other with regard to breaches of previous cross-licensing arrangements. Oh, and AMD gets $1.25bn and Intel agrees to "abide by a set of business practice provisions".

AMD is dropping its pending litigation in the US District Court in Delaware and two cases running in Japan, and is withdrawing all regulatory complaints it has made to various governments of the world. The two companies will file their ~~nuptial~~ settlement agreement in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are hosting separate press conferences later today to explain the settlement.

"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," Intel and AMD said in a joint statement.

Lawyers around the world may cry now. ®

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