Intel CEO slams antitrust double standard

 

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By Darien Graham-Smith in San Francisco

Posted on 22 Sep 2009 at 20:13

The European Commission’s antitrust battle with Intel hung heavy over the first morning of IDF – especially after the EC’s release of testimony from PC manufacturers that appeared to confirm that Intel had pressured them into unfairly sidelining AMD processors.

In a press conference immediately following his keynote speech, Intel CEO Paul Otellini confronted the issue head on, affirming the position the company set out yesterday.

“We don’t do exclusive deals,” he declared. “We don’t do conditional deals – despite what you’ve read, and what you’ve heard.”

Otellini accused the EC of cherry-picking evidence from major PC manufacturers to present Intel in the worst possible light, and lamented that, owing to the requirements of legal process, the company was unable to publicly rebut the allegations right away.

“They have consistently ignored information that would have painted an entirely different story about those memos,” he sighed. “We have customers who are willing to state that the characterisation of that particular customer was wrong.”

“Dell, in particular,” he added pointedly.

“But one of the things that governments can do is reveal documents like that, and we can’t reveal documents that we think show the other side. So we’re waiting for the opportunity to do that in an appeal at the court of first instance.”

“We don’t behave in the way that they’ve weaved together from their salacious emails – and I fully expect that we’ll be exonerated on appeal.”