[citation][nom]clemaaron[/nom]"AMD will also withdraw all of its regulatory complaints worldwide."So does this mean that Intel is off the hook for all the anti-competitive crap they've been getting in trouble with over the last year or so... If so, $1.25 billion sounds on the light side... didn't they give Dell $6 billion over a period of 5 years?[/citation]
To quote the NY Times, "However, the Intel-AMD settlement does not end separate antitrust actions against Intel by government bodies in the Europe, Asia and the United States."
This is Intel's way of getting AMD off their backs for another 5 years or so, and is more or less a tacit admission that they would lose a legal battle in the end - one that could potentially be more costly than the $1.25 billion they are shelling out here. In fact, they stated that themselves:
"The final negotiating point, Mr. Otellini said, was how much Intel would pay A.M.D. He said that it pained him to write such a big check, but $1.2 billion might well be a 'small multiple' of the company’s potential liability if it lost a jury trial in Delaware."
But no, it certainly doesn't affect the antitrust lawsuits already filed by government entities (Korea, the European Union, and now New York).
Granted, it's hard to try and recoup losses from bygone years, regardless of how ill-gotten those gains might have been. I think AMD acknowledges that the only way they will get market share back is to focus more on development and their new GlobalFoundries fab. The government antitrust lawsuits don't funnel any money into AMD anyways - it would just be in the form of fines that would go straight back into government coffers.
In other words, AMD will gladly take that money and run with it, and let Intel continue to be caught up with government watchdogs.
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