Replies to post #50783 on Intel Corp (INTC)

[wbmw]

Re: Intel executives said the difference between American and foreign antitrust was that Americans view it as protecting competition, while the others use it to protect competitors.

If this is true, then it's almost a tacit admission that Intel execs are uncertain about their chances under European law. This is a bad sign, in my eyes. It's just a matter of how big the fine from the EU is going to be, and which practices they will demand Intel to change. Perhaps the answer is that Intel needs to "let" AMD have a certain amount of revenue share in Europe, while they can press them harder domestically, or in Asia. Personally, I would like to see how Chinese Law works in this case, since that's the largest market for Intel.

[Elmer Phud]

Intel: Too Soon to Say Whether FTC Dropped Antitrust Investigation
By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews
October 22, 2007, 1:17 PM

In response to a New York Times story this morning that cites unnamed officials at the Federal Trade Commission as having indicated its chairman has decided not to pursue a formal investigation of Intel's antitrust conduct with regard to AMD, Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy called the report "speculation."

"We regularly talk to the USFTC and share documents with the USFTC," Mulloy told BetaNews, "and have done so for years." Refusing to classify this sharing of documents as part of any FTC investigation, formal or informal, he added that the subject matter of documents being transferred between his company and the FTC include documents relevant to foreign antitrust investigations - such as the ongoing case in Korea - and the domestic antitrust case filed against it by AMD in Delaware court.

Intel does not know how the FTC intends to use those documents and does not care, for now, as Mulloy said his company will not comment on the internal workings of the Commission or how decisions are made there. He did add, though, that his company's position with regards to the AMD case is the same as before: "The market rewards companies that deliver a product the market wants," he told BetaNews.

For the FTC's part, it has issued no formal statement on the matter, and has yet to respond to BetaNews' inquiry.

Over the weekend, it was learned the FTC did indeed come to the conclusion that a joint memory venture between Intel and STMicroelectronics was clear to proceed. The Commission had asked for more details about the venture back in August. Today, Mulloy told BetaNews the conditions for closing the deal have yet to be reached, but with the FTC's blessing, the two sides hope to conclude the deal by the end of this year.