Intel settles with AMD for $1.25bn
Lawsuits wrapped up with cash, promises of good behavior
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. ®
COMMENTS
This is a first...
This to me reads as a sign of fear on intel's part. intel hasnt feared anything in the past, the EU / Japan / South Korea antitrust complains didnt seem to phase them, AMD's civil litigation was an expected cost of doing business and so on.
In those scenarios the only at stake was some money, possibly some restrictions on marketing practices, and maybe a dent or 2 in their pride, nothing more. in their own view, their armor was thick enough it could with stand a few chinks here and there, battle scars that make for good war stories to tell their grandchildren.
Then came Andrew Cuomo and the state of New York, followed closely behind by the FTC, with wispers of the DOJ riding in behind them, all waving antitrust antitrust complaints, and all having the power to do some real damage to intel. looking at that battlefield, and the possible consequences of losing any or all of the upcoming US government cases, intel actually showed signs of fear and waved the white flag, hoping that settle the case with AMD and making an agreement about its future marketing practices will be enough to stave off the coming onslaught of US.gov cases.
probably a wise move on intel's part, with a heavily democrat controlled US government in place at the moment, intel faces the very real possibility of being broken up by the courts. they would have faced the same fate as Microsoft in its antitrust case, however this time its to early in the election cycle, there wouldn't be a change of office, no republican president to come in and save their ass, like Bush did for Microsoft...
Well this is certainly a blue ball moment...
Now we will never know if Intel was giving discounts to OEMs for not using AMD chips.
Unless of course Intel begins or continues the practice after this agreement...
Hell will freeze over...
...and pigs will fly long before any Intel product is purchase by this company.
Never Intel Inside
@EJl: Agreed, I only bought AMD-powered PCs, (until I had no choice when switching to Mac-intel) because there's no difference except that AMD saves you money.
Intel has been sucking the oxygen out of the economy, just as Microsoft has...you think there's no effect when a company piles up billions of dollars of profit and cash-on-hand, while stifling innovation and creativity...?
Hope to see AMD's technology gain a fair market share now, offering good value...
I was surprised that AMD settled for less than the EU fine. I would've hammered Intel to get at least $1.5B.
(Any relation to Intel chief counsel moving on to Apple earlier?? "Nothing to defend here any longer.")
