Thursday, June 5th 2008
Intel Fined USD $25.4 Million in South Korea
Chip maker Intel was fined USD $25.4 million (£13m) by the Korea Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday for taking advantage from its dominant position in the microprocessor market against rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The Commission fined Intel because it was offering discounts to Samsung Electronics Co. and Trigem Computer Inc. that were against the Korean antitrust rules. Intel had offered about $37 million in rebates to Samsung and Trigem for over two and a half years on the condition that they wouldn't buy from Advanced Micro, according to commission's statement. Intel said it was very unhappy with the ruling and will further review the South Korean commission's decision. "We are disappointed with the decision. We feel the commission has overlooked or ignored key evidence that demonstrates Intel's business practices have been fair and lawful," Intel's Asia Pacific regional spokesman Nick Jacobs said in a statement. "Once we've had a chance to review the findings in detail it is possible that Intel will request a further review and, if necessary, an appeal which will permit a court to review the case independently." Since 2005, Intel has also been hit by anti-trust cases in the US, Japan and Europe.
Sources:
Bloomberg, AFP
62 Comments on Intel Fined USD $25.4 Million in South Korea
it must be so frustrating for AMD. maybe some people who design the AMD chips shouldn't be where they are.
they need to get rid of a few of them people then hire new people in cuz it sounds like their design team are really scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas & because of that mentality/mindset nothing productive comes out of it asside from something theyve already done before - - - U.L.V Chips.
their infrastructure needs restructuring - they need to root out the personnel that bring NOTHING to the table & get rid of them to make way for fresh blood & also fresh ideas - somebody who will really push the design team forward
I'm only waiting for AMD to make a large strike back at Intel, as has happened in the past and as will happen again.
BTW AMD has problems with the community. Look around. Intel is everywhere. They make competitions, they support events..activities... I mean they are active. AMD is kinda passive.
and it a low fine if you ask me... intel made more profit outta it then what they paid..
Like I said before (with a tad of sarcasm): Shame on you Intel for being such a fierce competitor! :rolleyes:
Look at the way companies get around providing benefits to workers by using temp agencies. Its far worse and the US does nothing about it.
Really those types of laws are good, can you imagine what you would pay for your processor if Intel was the only company making them?
Look at the prices of Windows in countries piracy is illegal in vs countries its legal in...
Look at old Machintosh processor prices, when they were still using Motorola chips, they were outrageous because they were the only company that made them.
It all falls down into the same reason in the US we have laws against holding massive amounts of currency, its simply to protect the rest of the country from there being no money in circulation. Imagine what would happen if a few of the super rich in this country decided to cash in their bank accounts, how much physical money would be held up not moving around, we would have some serious issues.
This is just the start of a chain reaction, as Intel still has numerous lawsuits and investigations pending in Asia, Europe and the United States.
AMD has been very docile in their business practices over the years, and have bitten the bullet hard when they were behind, they've been more than willing to admit when their new CPUs don't meet expectations, or when they've run into unforseen issues (i.e. Phenoms), and they usually don't make any statements when Intel gets on it's ego-trip; but it's at the point now where they've had to say something, and even still they've been rather quiet about it instead of making a massive-deal over it.
breakfree.amd.com/en-us/default.aspx
Keep in mind also, that a lot of these investigations have come from 3rd parties - meaning these organizations have been under no pressure at all from AMD; they noticed something was up to begin with, or they recieved a tip-off from an anonymous source.
As much as I've supported Intel over the years, and still do, I'd love to see them get bitch-slapped right about now.
EDIT: Posted right after Imperial, but he is right and I second what he says. He said it alot better than me.
IBM chose Intel to produce the processors for their PCs. However, IBM's policy required that there needs to be two sources (basic economics - helps IBM). AMD made clones of Intel's chips until Intel refused to allow AMD to use their design. AMD was then forced to produce Intel's design without any knowledge of the design.
After Intel released many designs, AMD decided to make their own designs which wasn't too long ago. AMD has been much smaller than Intel and still managed to produce a chip that was better than Intel.
If one company becomes a monopoly, it hurts inovation and jacks the price up. Thats why their should be at least two companies. It is best in theory to have two companies compete with 50/50 market share. (pretty much impossible)