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
If you invent something completely new and start selling it, you have a monopoly on that market segment.
If someone comes up with a competing product and you try to eliminate them, that's when you get into trouble.
If no one else enters the market, you remain a monopoly and are not breaking any laws.
Monopolies are not inherantly bad. Using anti-competitive business tactics is bad.
Monopolies are inherntly bad because "stock prices must raise" and the super rich want nothing but more money.... And those are the people that run and own those companies, so you do the math.
The only way to take control of the world is to buy it, CEO's and billionaire stock investors are power/money hungry, all they care about is comma's in their bank account and power.
In the US, when a company is traded publicly (you can buy their stock on the open market) the company "by law" must do everything they can to increase the value of the stock for the shareholders.
If AMD eats away at a portion of the market and Intel stocks drop, they MUST take measures to try to remedy the situation. If a company appears to be doing nothing to increase the worth of their shares, or worse trying to deflate them, they will soon be investigated on a Federal level.
Many of you act as if Intel is some dude banging his fist against a table shouting, "I want more money!" It's not, its management is beholding to the Board of Directors who are elected by thousands of shareholders who are doing the fist banging. As purchasers of Intel stock they have the right to demand increased value or dividends.
That, of course, does not justify breaking laws to make that happen.
second, i dont know which economics books you have read, but absolutely nowhere has it ever been said that 50/50 market share is the best in theory. not even marxism says that. this does not take away from the fact that stopping intel from crushing amd is actually hurting innovation by keeping amd alive when it probably should be dead and another company/campanies can take that share and innovate and take on intel.
Considering that Marxism is a political theory that doesn't support capitalism, it wouldn't make any sense to say that.
This will explain it:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations
"Taking into account Intel's rebates, AMD could not possibly fight Intel even if its chips were offered for free." (June 5, 2008)
"Intel's rebates were paid in return for not using its rivals' products and (this) has hurt market competition by limiting the choice of local PC makers in selecting business partners." (June 5, 2008)
"South Korean consumers had to buy PCs at higher prices as domestic PC makers were forced to buy Intel's pricier CPU." (June 5, 2008)