After facing legal scrutiny outside the U.S. for years, the Federal Trade Commission lowered the boom on Intel this week, but is the action, as some analyst’s assert, too little, too late?
The Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against Intel isn’t earning a lot of cheers of support, except maybe from nVidia. In fact, analysts think the suit over claims that the world’s biggest chip maker used its market position to stifle competitors is late and pointless.
“This is kind of pathetic. Over two years after Japan, Korea and the EU have taken action and Intel settled with AMD, now the FTC steps up and says something? That’s pathetic,” groused Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist with In-Stat.
Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) past behavior certainly earned it considerable scrutiny. In its complaint, the FTC raises issues dating back to 1999. AMD (NYSE: AMD) filed its antitrust case against Intel in 2005. Japanese regulators raided Intel’s offices in 2004 and South Korean officials did the same in 2006.