AMD gains dramatic as Intel fights antitrust case

Stan Beer
Friday, 05 May 2006 07:34

IT Industry - Strategy

Intel has struck back in the US District Court of Delaware over the antitrust allegations levelled against it by rival chip maker AMD. Meanwhile, AMD continues to increase its marketshare at Intel's expense to the point where the general consensus is that AMD now has broken through the 20% barrier, a gain of more than 4% is the past year.

Intel's latest defence ploy is to try have the case thrown out of the US court because it alleges that most of AMD's complaints are over actions that Intel conducted outside of the US. AMD gets the lion's share of its business from the EU and Asian markets but contends that, as the two companies are both US, the case should be heard in a US court.

AMD alleges that Intel has pressured customers worldwide for the past 10 years not to deal with AMD, accusing the giant chip maker of persuading customers either through financial means or threats to boycott AMD products and promotions.

What ever the outcome, given the amount of third party witnesses to be called, including most of the most powerful computer companies in the world, it is likely that the antitrust action will be a long drawn out process that could take another two years. At the rate that AMD has been eating into Intel's market share lately, by the time the case is decided it might be the dominant player - not if Intel has anything to say about it though.