• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

AMD Seeks Evidence From Intel Customers

Posted on: Friday, 7 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

By Therese Poletti, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Oct. 7--Seeking ammunition in its antitrust lawsuit against Intel, computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices has issued subpoenas requesting documents from dozens of Intel customers including the biggest names in the computer industry.

The subpoenas are part of AMD's effort to gather any evidence proving Intel used monopoly power to strong-arm customers into exclusive deals, buying its chips instead of AMD's or others.

Among those subpoenaed are computer-maker heavyweights Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM and Gateway, as well as several distributors and retailers, including Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA and Fry's Electronics.

AMD filed the antitrust lawsuit against its rival, Intel, in late June. One of Intel's tactics, AMD claims, is to threaten and retaliate against computer makers that use too many AMD chips.

AMD seeks any documents dated on or after Jan. 1, 2000, having to do with communications with Intel and the sale of its microprocessors, the use of "Intel Inside" marketing funds, any financial inducements from Intel, discounts offered by Intel, and all purchase histories, including prices paid to Intel from 2000 on.

"We are braced for a tidal wave," said Chuck Diamond, an attorney with O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, a law firm working with AMD.

Other computer companies that received the subpoena include ASI Computer Technologies in Fremont, Tech Data in Clearwater, Fla., Toshiba America, Rackable Systems of Milpitas, Egenera of Marlboro, Mass., MPC Computers in Nampa, Idaho, Sony, NEC, NEC USA, Sun Microsystems of Santa Clara, Fujitsu, Acer America in San Jose, and Lenovo Group in Purchase, N.Y.

Diamond said the companies that received requests for documents have 30 days to respond. "But obviously, we are flexible," he said. "We will be talking to all the parties to make sure this is not ultimately too burdensome."

Officials at several computer makers who could be reached declined to comment. Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for Intel in Santa Clara, said that the move was "largely procedural" and there wasn't much Intel could say at this point.

There are now also 69 separate class-action lawsuits filed against Intel, using AMD's original antitrust complaint as the backbone of arguments saying consumers were harmed by anti-competitive practices by Intel. The cases have not yet been consolidated into one big case, although Diamond said all but one of the parties would like to move the class-action suits to Delaware, where AMD has filed its suit against Intel. AMD plans to work with the plaintiffs' lawyers, sharing the results of their discovery with them.

So far, Diamond said AMD has received objections regarding its requests for documents from one company, NEC of Japan. NEC has told AMD's attorneys that U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction over its Japanese-based documents.

"They have filed a formal objection. That is an issue we may have to litigate," Diamond said.

AMD and Intel have a long history of contentious rivalry. They fought an eight-year legal war over patents and antitrust issues from 1987 to 1995. They settled the matter with a 10-year licensing agreement, which they renewed for an additional 10 years in 2001. The terms of the 2001 licensing renewal were kept confidential, but they did not prohibit AMD from filing an antitrust suit against Intel based on new evidence.

In this new lawsuit, AMD said it does not expect to be able to go to trial until at least the end of 2006.

"We had hoped to get started before the end of 2006," Diamond said. But the class-action lawsuits, he said, "have eaten up some of the clock."

-----

To see more of the San Jose Mercury News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mercurynews.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

AMD, INTC, HPQ, DELL, IBM, 6680, GTW,

Source: San Jose Mercury News

More News in this Category