Intel Under the Microscope - Faces Antitrust Suit in North America

[FiXT]

The New York Attorney General has hopped on the bandwagon and launched a lawsuit against Intel over its alleged antitrust actions. Intel's business practices have been scrutinized across the globe and so far in nearly every country that it has faced accusations, it has been found guilty. Korea, Japan and most recently Europe have all come to the c... [ Read full article ]

 

[CMetaphor]

"Intel’s actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices"

And people wonder why I don't like them...

 

[FiXT]

I couldn't quite find a place to put it in the article, however, apparently according to the New York Times and Dell - Intel reduced Dell's rebates by $600 MILLION when they began to use AMD chips.... that is a HELL of a lot of money!

 

[CMetaphor]

... That just makes me even more Angry. :angry2: $600 Million...

 

[MarkOne]

Can you imagine the price of the CPU if Intel are successful to know out AMD.

 

[Jon_di2]

Well In Intels defence it does make sense to give rebates to your most loyal customers. So with the dell example; when they started using AMD chips this would have meant that dell would have been buying fewer Intel chips.

Lets say that dell originally bought 10 Million Intel Chips and when they started to buy AMD chips they only bought 7 Million chips from Intel. Obviously Intel needs to cut costs and taking away rebates from a disloyal customer seems to make sense to me. For every AMD based PC that Dell builds is technically a lost sale for Intel.

Now they dont give all the details in the article. It might be that Intel told dell and other companies that they would only give rebates/other benefits to them if they did not buy AMD products. If Intel took away the perks for that reason and not because the decline in products bought from their customers... then yes the are

 

[FiXT]

The whole Dell thing was stuff that came out during the EU investigation.

For further reading hop over to: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/technology/companies/05chip.html

Gives a bit more of the back story, but you will have to dive back to about June to get more details on the exact specifics of the rebates and such


They brought up your exact question

"Rebate payments and other incentives provided to customers fall into a murky area of the law, according to antitrust scholars. Intel’s critics must show that it went beyond the typical actions that one would expect from a company trying to protect its business.

“A lot of what they are talking about here sounds nefarious, but others would look at it and say that is how markets work,” said John E. Lopatka, a professor and antitrust expert at Pennsylvania State University’s Dickinson School of Law.

 

[CMetaphor]

Well In Intels defence it does make sense to give rebates to your most loyal customers. So with the dell example; when they started using AMD chips this would have meant that dell would have been buying fewer Intel chips.

Lets say that dell originally bought 10 Million Intel Chips and when they started to buy AMD chips they only bought 7 Million chips from Intel. Obviously Intel needs to cut costs and taking away rebates from a disloyal customer seems to make sense to me. For every AMD based PC that Dell builds is technically a lost sale for Intel.

Now they dont give all the details in the article. It might be that Intel told dell and other companies that they would only give rebates/other benefits to them if they did not buy AMD products. If Intel took away the perks for that reason and not because the decline in products bought from their customers... then yes the are

The conditions of Dell getting those rebates in the first place was that they Didnt buy AMD products and promoted them less. Read more into this... Intel gave Dell money to sell fewer AMD chips, not to encourage them to buy more Intel ones.

 

[bojangles]

The conditions of Dell getting those rebates in the first place was that they Didnt buy AMD products and promoted them less. Read more into this... Intel gave Dell money to sell fewer AMD chips, not to encourage them to buy more Intel ones.

This +1.

 

[Sushi Warrior]

For one thing, NY starting a lawsuit or w/e is biased, they just gave a couple hundred million to GlobalFoundries to make a plant there. Second, I wouldn't agree with the above - Intel payed Dell (and other PC makers) money to sell Intel only, so they still sell the same number of computers anyhow. Less AMD = more Intel, simple math.