Intel Will Speak With Regulators On Pricing

Share

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy has confirmed to Reuters that the company will speak with regulators from the FTC on their chip pricing: "We will likely talk to regulators about ... pricing schemes and AMD is free to make their view known to regulators," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.

Intel will speak with regulators on pricing

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy has confirmed to Reuters that the company will speak with regulators from the FTC on their chip pricing:

"We will likely talk to regulators about ... pricing schemes and AMD is free to make their view known to regulators," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.
"We will not agree with AMD on pricing," said Mulloy, noting that it would be a violation of antitrust law for rival companies to set prices together.

Despite the AMD settlement last month, Intel's still potentially facing charges from the FTC. Already regulatory agencies in Korea, Japan, and Europe have found Intel abused their dominant position in the CPU market to stifle the adoption of AMD CPUs. By going ahead and speaking with the FTC now, Intel's hoping to avoid running into issues with the FTC.

Of course, they haven't settled with NVIDIA, who has complained openly about Intel's Atom pricing -- Intel sells the CPUs for significantly less if they're purchased with the chipset -- hurting NVIDIA's ION platform for Atom. NVIDIA also feels Intel's pushed them out of the Intel-based chipset business for Nehalem CPUs.

With the FTC looking into their business practices, and the NVIDIA suit expected to go to trial next year, Intel may want to settle their issues with NVIDIA as soon as possible. Of course, at the same time I don't think Jen-Hsun will settle cheap like AMD did. NVIDIA can afford to hold out as long as needed, AMD execs must've felt differently when they chose to settle w/Intel for $1.5 billion.

Source: FiringSquad