NY AG: Intel Is An Illegal Monopoly That Uses "Bribery And Coercion"

NY AG: Intel Is An Illegal Monopoly That Uses "Bribery And Coercion"

consumerist.com

"Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market," said Attorney General Cuomo. "Intel's actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices. These illegal tactics must stop and competition must be restored to this vital marketplace."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Very interesting....


They go on to show how Dell got more rebates from them then they actually MADE in one year!

* In 2006, Intel paid Dell almost $2 billion in "rebates," and in two quarters of that year, rebate payments exceeded Dell's reported net income
* From 2001 to 2006, Intel granted Dell a privileged position vis-à-vis other computer makers in return for Dell's agreement not to market any products from Advanced Micro Devices ("AMD") (NYSE: AMD), Intel's major competitor
* Intel and Dell collaborated to market microprocessors and servers at prices below cost in order to deprive AMD of strategically important competitive successes

HP

* Intel threatened HP that it would derail development of a server technology on which HP's future business depended if HP promoted products from AMD
* Intel paid HP hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates in return for HP's agreement to cap HP's sales of AMD-based products at 5% of its business desktop PCs
* In 2006, Intel and HP entered into an broader, company-wide agreement to pay HP $925 million to increase Intel's shares of HP's sales at AMD's expense

IBM

* Intel paid IBM $130 million not to launch an AMD-based server product
* Intel threatened to pull funding for joint projects that benefited IBM if IBM marketed AMD-based server products
* Intel pressured IBM to launch another AMD-based server only on an "unbranded" basis

If you are going to cook the books... at least have the forethought to make it smell good....

THIS IS YOUR FREE MARKET FOLKS!

If you ask me it's a GOOD THING that the GOV STEPPED IN!



consumerist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow.

I can't get over how much they paid to bribe Dell. That is staggering.

Shouldn't the companies that accepted these "rebates" also be held to account?

I've always liked Intel CPU's and am running a Quad right now, but I think my next CPU upgrade will be an AMD.

Well, Intel's i5 and i7s really do trump AMD's processors in terms of performance, energy efficiency, and heat output. And this is coming from someone that has been using AMD processors for 5 years.

Intel has great products, it's a shame they're that greedy. But then again, I shouldn't be surprised; it is a corporation after all.

reply to post by kommunist


Yhea I went AMD for this processor cos I had only ever had Intel up until that point and I'd herd that intel had just been given a fine (small for them, not even a slap on the wrists) for unfair business practices - I think it was in France.

But basically they have pushed other manufacturers out of the game - quite often Intel computers appeared in the shops first, and with favourable advertising and they were just basically pushed harder than AMD machines...

So I got to thinking that if the chips are pretty much evenly matched AMD must be the better company because they were still able to compete against Intel... Any way I have no complaints at all - does what it's supposed to.

I own a company which *used* to have the letters I-N-T-E-L in its name. Intel threatened legal action... and I had to change the name...

I am not sure "bribe" is the right term. It sounds like business deal that includes exclusivtivity. Intel says "We'll give you x million dollars to use Intel chips in your Dell boxes. Deals like that are made everyday. I can see how you CAN call it a bribe but if you take your wife to dinner are you bribing her to go with you?