Intel and AMD announced today that they were settling their many antitrust and patent disputes, with Intel to pay $1.25 billion and the two companies to cross-license the affected patents. Intel also agreed to “a set of undisclosed new business practrices,” as The New York Times puts it.
Let’s be clear what this agreement doesn’t do. It doesn’t erase the pending antitrust actions taken by the European Union and elsewhere against Intel, or the recently filed antitrust lawsuit filed in federal court in the U.S. by New York attorney-general Andrew Cuomo. (Recall that in May the EU fined Intel $1.45 billion, a judgment the company is appealing.)
The announced settlement of the private litigation, indeed, will have no effect on the EU case, at least according to EU antitrust commissioner Neelie Kroes.
I will make a bold prediction, however, that over the next twelve months both the EU and New York State antitrust enforcement actions will quietly disappear. Intel will not pay $1.45 billion to the Europeans, or face the wrath of Andrew Cuomo who, after 23 months of investigation, has found evidence that he claims proves Intel has bribed and blackmailed its major customers.
For more, see http://larrydownes.com/the-intelamd-settlement-watch-what-happens/