After Intel acquired my company, I had a conversation with two long-term Intel employees about a new product. They were shocked by one of my suggestions, and almost whispered in response, "Microsoft wouldn't like it." I don't recall if I said out loud that Intel was a pretty large company itself and didn't have a lot to fear from Microsoft.
Intel is the other half of the "Wintel" duopoly, the combination of Windows operating system and Intel processors that completely dominates the desktop computing industry. Microsoft's unsavory practices result in a constant stream of court cases against it in various jurisdictions. Now Intel feels the same heat: competitor AMD launched a series of court cases against Intel, alleging classical, illegal anticompetitive behavior.
A letter from AMD's attorney [subscription required] appears in today's Wall Street Journal in response to a recent pro-Intel article, and I think it's worth quoting extensively:
It is not competition when Intel pays a computer maker millions of dollars to cancel a new product containing AMD CPUs or when Intel threatens them with retaliation if they publicly support new AMD products. And the list of Intel tricks goes on. That's why computer makers tell us, "We think that you have great products and we wish that we could buy more of them but Intel prevents us from doing so."
The Japan Fair Trade Commission has already found that Intel violated its antitrust laws by imposing illegal, exclusive contracts on computer manufacturers. The Korean FTC is investigating and last year the European Commission gathered evidence via dawn raids about Intel's behavior. Most recently, the Financial Times Deutschland revealed the existence of an illegal and secret deal between Intel and Germany's largest retailer, Media Markt, to exclude AMD from the consumer segment.
AMD's accusations and the commission findings make me think that Intel borrowed Microsoft's tactics; perhaps Microsoft's attitudes are contagious. Competition by intimidation works for a time, but eventually fails. AMD can't be squeezed out of the marketplace forever.
Topics: · computers
