The gloves are off.
Intel finally responded to AMD’s
lawsuits accusing the chip giant of
illegal anti-competitive practices.
Intel executives have declined to comment at length to AMD’s charges,
except to insist the charges were without merit and that Intel competes
fairly. Today in a detailed response, Intel said AMD’s inability to gain
more significant market share is the result of its own missteps, rather than
any illegal actions on Intel’s part.
Intel said AMD has a reputation for being an unreliable supplier.
In a statement filed with the U.S. District Court in Delaware, Intel said
“AMD’s complaint presents a case study in legal dissonance. Although AMD has
purportedly brought its complaint to promote competition, its true aim is
the opposite. Under the cover of competition law, AMD seeks to shield itself
from competition. AMD seeks to impede Intel’s ability to lower prices and
thereby to allow AMD to charge higher prices. AMD’s colorful language and
fanciful claims cannot obscure AMD’s goal of shielding AMD from price
competition.”
Intel said AMD has “a history (of) manufacturing snafus that led it to
cut off microprocessor supplies to many customers, making it difficult to
regain share and crippling earnings.”
AMD was quick to respond to the charges. “It is true that with our early
K6 processor, we had difficulty ramping one of our steppers. That hurt us for
a couple of quarters,” Thomas McCoy, AMD’s executive vice president of legal affairs told internetnews.com. “But it’s overwhelmingly true that we’ve been a worthy competitor for over twenty
years, and now we have the technology lead. The problem is that Intel is
using its monopoly power to force the world to accept Intel monopoly prices
and is illegally insulated from having to compete on price and performance.
We know that Intel is not the price leader, AMD is. Intel maintains a very
constant monopoly margin it’s proud of.”
McCoy pointed out that the Fair Trade Commission of Japan found
Intel guilty in March of antitrust violations . The European Commission officials also raided several Intel offices across Europe this summer as part of the ongoing
investigation of Intel for antitrust violations.
The Intel response claims AMD has played it safe over the years with “an
anemic investment in manufacturing capacity.” But Intel gave AMD credit for
its success with the 64-bit Opteron processor for the server market, where it
brought out a dual-core offering ahead of Intel. “When AMD is able to
combine competitive products with reliable supply, the market responds,”
said Intel.
“Let’s not debate it anymore,” said AMD’s McCoy. “We brought this case to
put light on the truth. We’ll put it in a courtroom and the world will see
for itself.”
