AMD blasts "predatory" Intel

 

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Posted on 6 May 2008 at 14:43

AMD has taken the gloves off in its antitrust suit with Intel, calling the chip giant "predatory" and claiming it paid manufacturers to drop its products.

The accusations form part of the company's pre-trial brief, which aims to convince the court to accept the testimony of its witnesses.

The documents have been published online with several sensitive segments blacked out.

AMD alleges its has proof of Intel's efforts to force it out of the market, claiming that as it became more competitive "antitrust compliance went out the window, as Intel scurried to lock AMD out of as many customers and market segments as possible."

Among the alleged practices, AMD claims Intel paid manufacturers to use its chips exclusively, and later to drop AMD machines from their line-ups.

"At various times, Intel also paid Gateway, Acer, the major Japanese OEMs, and various system builders and distributors to close their doors to AMD," the document claims.

AMD then goes onto name individuals and incidents, though these sections are heavily redacted. However, among the blacked out text a few nuggets remain, including the following allegation regarding HP: "HP took only 160,000 of the one million free processors that AMD had offered it. No rational computer maker would leave 840,000 free, state-of-the-art microprocessors on the table unless it had been foreclosed from using them by exclusionary conduct. And this is precisely what happened."

There's also words on Sony: "Starting in late 2002, Intel's anticompetitive, all-or-nothing 'conditional' rebates dropped Sony's AMD purchases for consumer-based systems from approximately 30% to zero within a matter of months. Intel's efforts were anything but oblique."

And Lenovo: "Lenovo launched an AMD desktop but [redacted], it postponed the launch event, limited promotion, and relegated the AMD to its low-end volumes."

Intel bites back

However, Intel's own pre-brief accuses AMD of "hyperbole" and argues that its complaint is counter-intuitive. "AMD filed this lawsuit in the midst of a run of more than three years during which it enjoyed unprecedented success in increasing its market share, its range of products, and its profits," argues Intel.

"More recently its fortunes have sagged as a result of poor business execution with new key products like its Barcelona microprocessor for servers... stripped of hyperbole, AMD's Complaint accuses Intel of competing too aggressively, by offering customers attractive, discounted prices and marketing and technical support to win their business."

Author: Stuart Turton