Intel braces for billion Euro fine European competition authorities are expected to release their verdict on Intel's allegedly anti-competitive behaviour this week, and it's not looking good for the chip maker. The Commission's decision was sent to national bodies in April and will be presented to the Commission on Wednesday. The court is widely expected to …
I see fines for companies doing the dirty in one way or another, all things that have affected end users in one way or another but what I'd really like to know is what is done with the money from these fines. It's all very well fining them for unfair practices but unless I'm mistaken (quite likely, I'm often wrong) small businesses and individuals are the ones that suffer from things like this and I'd be surprised if they ever receive a penny after the outcome.
If anyone that knows can answer, what happens to the money from fines like this?
Evil Jobs because I don't like his smug smile and God complex.
Headline: The US DOJ is investigating Intel for anti competitive practices
Reader comments: What bastards, I cant believe Intel would do that. I'm only buying AMD from now on.
Headline: The European Commission is investigating Intel for anti competitive practices
Reader comments: Filthy Euro commie bastards, dont they know AMD sucks and Intel is the best? Its the way business is done!
I'm always amazed when people complain about the EC investigating Intel but somehow ignore that they have been found guilty in Japan and Korea and are still under investigation in the USA. Somehow the fact that they are being investigated by the EC makes Intel innocent and AMD guilty.
Who gets this cash...... and what happens if Intel simply say "European courts? Who are they?... look at my face, bothered...".
Does the commission have teeth to back up the bark? Can Intel simply tell them to go whistle and carry on business as usual?
Paris, she's all about business...
.. by not making good processors any more, they were nicely ahead a few years ago, because they had much better performance over the pentiums for a lot less of cost. Now the core 2 range has got the performance market back and so they are being forced onto the back foot.
None of the people i know buy amd any more, compared to a few years ago when everyone had them, maybe if they made a better product they would be doing better!
Yeah well, by being undermined by Intel they couldn't invest enough in R&D, it's as simple as that. So now they are not number 1 anymore!
Good so, it might not be enough to save AMD, but will teach a lesson in fair competition to all those companies out there!
Presumably if Intel tells the EU to fuck off then the EU will ban Intel products from being sold within the Union. Along with seizure of Intel assets within the EU plus daily fines that would result in Intel never being able to do business within the EU again.
Not that it would be that simple, mind, but ultimately Intel could not risk that happening (remember that it could well be that no products using Intel components would be allowed to be sold within the EU - certainly third party manufacturers might get jumpy enough not to risk it) so they will appeal as much as they can, change their practices to try to get the EU to drop any further action and ultimately pay whatever the fine is negotiated down to when they lose all the outstanding appeals.
Anticompetition laws take too fucking long to sort out.
a billion euros? ten?
**For disposing of your only competitor in a high-tech, global, high-demand market, THIS IS RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP**
Insanely cheap, for what they bought with the money : Nearly ten years of shutting its only competitor out of the marketplace to the point where AMD is now facing bankruptcy.
So what difference does it make? unless they hand that money directly over to AMD immediately, I cant see it helping AMD anymore than Transmeta eventually winning their patent violations for the Intel Mobile powersaver feature stuff.
@AC : "make a better product" Good grief, you sound like a high-scool business student telling people that free market forces dictate; No, they dont. AMD had a better product with the K7, which hammered intels price/performance ratio at time of launch in '99. from that point onwards, intel embarked on the most outrageous system of bribery, backhanding, and corporate "giveaways" (hi, Dell sales team, Intel guys given you anymore T-shirts, mugs, and bags yet?), along with a system of Business/server sales 'meet and greets' reminiscent of cold-war arms dealer "lets go play some golf on mars guys, Im paying" style antics.
Despite a worsening situation which AMD didnt have the cash or the sales foothold to combat as it ploughed a greater share of its turnover into R&D than intel (resulting in the first desktop x64 chips) AMD still continued to make a better buy on the performance/price ratio until recently, where its R&D team is churning out superior design chips that the company cant afford to manufacture due to the fact it cant sell its products, because every man and his dog is brainwashed by that goddamned Intel jingle.
If I sound like a Tin-foil hatguy, If you ever watched a TV advert in the UK for PC world, Time computers, Gateway etc during 1998-2005, and at any point they mention intel processors and the Ad stops and they play the jingle? That Ad was 30-100% subsidised by intel.
**Tombstone for AMD. maybe eventually intel will run out of ways to appeal and have to pay some irrelevant, cut-down, slashed fine in around 5 years time, probably just enough to buy a metaphorical wreath for AMDs corporate grave.
There's no truth to this at all. It's just a scene from a nightmare caused by too much currywurst and bad wine:
Dear computer user,
You have been identified as a registered user of the [redacted] firmware product.
Due to recent Court rulings, [redacted] will cease doing business in the European Union after [CENSORED] and all [redacted] licenses for users located in the EU will expire. Your computer may stop working as a result.
[Redacted]'s liability is limited by terms of the End User License Agreement included with your computer when new, and excludes both implied warranty and direct or indirect damages of any sort.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause .
Regards...
ARM were light years ahead of Intel when their chips were used in the Acorn range of computers, Intel bought ARM and Acorn slipped quietly into administration...
They killed the competition (in UK schools and colleges) and does it really surprise anyone that after such a great success and no fallout they would try the same thing with AMD?
The Risc PC was modular, had dual processors (could switch between Risc OS & Windows on a keypress or run windows in a window) - i've not had an easier machine to program.
Mines the one with the little green badge...
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