This news of AMD taking Intel to court is getting lots of air-time everywhere. I’m personally an AMD guy, I’ve used them in all my PC builds (Full Disclosure: I also own AMD stock) so I’m excited and nervous about this news. Excited, because I’d love to see AMD continue to grow. It’d be great to see a Dell without an “Intel Inside” sticker on it. I’d love to see the company I have a vested interest in succeed on a larger scale. But this makes me nervous because AMD may alienate the people it wants future business from.
Nevertheless, reading some of this case does make it look like something is amiss with Intel’s “practices”:
AMD’s complaint lists examples of what it characterizes as bribes, threats or intimidation by Intel involving 12 computer makers, nine distributors and 17 retailers.
One example noted that Gateway paid a hefty price for its limited dealings with AMD, with its executives conceding that Intel “had beaten them into guacamole.”
and
In discussions about buying from AMD, “Dell executives have frankly conceded that they must financially account for Intel retribution in negotiating pricing from AMD,” the suit alleges.
This will be interesting to watch because the ramifications are huge.
One thing that should be pointed out is that this AMD/Intel bickering has been going on for a while, here in the US and overseas. Intel may already be trouble in Japan, and possibly the EU, too. The case here in the States isn’t something that just happened out of the blue.
I hope AMD has a solid, legitimate case. Crying “Intel isn’t playing fair!” because they feel they are losing ground is something I hope they’re not doing. Life, especially in a free market, isn’t fair. But, and that’s a big but, if Intel isn’t “playing fair” they should be held responsible, within the bounds of the law.