AMD and Intel Announce Settlement of All Antitrust and IP Disputes

[Salamok]

Holy Crap!

SUNNYVALE/SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Nov. 12, 2009 – Intel Corporation and Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) today announced a comprehensive agreement to end all outstanding legal disputes between the companies, including antitrust litigation and patent cross license disputes.

In a joint statement the two companies commented, "While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development."

Under terms of the agreement, AMD and Intel obtain patent rights from a new 5-year cross license agreement, Intel and AMD will give up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement, and Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion. Intel has also agreed to abide by a set of business practice provisions. As a result, AMD will drop all pending litigation including the case in U.S. District Court in Delaware and two cases pending in Japan. AMD will also withdraw all of its regulatory complaints worldwide. The agreement will be made public in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

I figured they would duke it out in court for a few more years.

[Murgos]

I am very surprised.  AMD looked like they were pulling ahead with the litigation with a couple of major anti-competition wins in Europe.  Intel must have had a solid IP suit pending or something.

Well, I have friends that work at AMD and they are confident they can compete favorably in a fair market, so maybe as a corporation that's all they really wanted.

[Miguel]

Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion

That is a pittance to pay (less than 10% of their liquid assets on hand) in order to keep their only competition in business. It certainly keeps them from having to answer the 'no judge, we're *not* a monopoly' type questions.

That AMD is still alive is shocking at this point:  I don't think they've had a profitable quarter in the last three years.

[fuser]

Some really major points is the liquid cash really gives AMD some breathing room as they have been slowly returning to profitability in the past few quarters. Dirk Meyer took over a complete mess and the purchase of ATI with subsequent write downs of the purchase has been totally ridiculous (three separate filings over 1.5bil). Phenom was a complete bust, Phenom II was too little to late, they have missed the netbook market (note-ably with only a new arch for it middle of next year on latest road maps), and the newest desktop arch is still no where to be seen. The cross licensing deal is fantastic because it was going to be a total mess (64bit, i386) and works favorably for both. There has been mention a framework in the agreement of Intel stopping all rebates and the previous practices to OEM's.

Will it do much? Not for 2010, Intel has 32nm process (Nehalem shrink), i3 (replacing last of Core2's and Pentium dual cores), Pineview (netbook, atom soc with graphics).

[Trippy]

Don't forget Larrabee.

[Salamok]

Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion

That is a pittance to pay (less than 10% of their liquid assets on hand) in order to keep their only competition in business. It certainly keeps them from having to answer the 'no judge, we're *not* a monopoly' type questions.

That AMD is still alive is shocking at this point:  I don't think they've had a profitable quarter in the last three years.

It isn't a pittance to AMD though.  

I can see AMD gaining market share over the next year (especially in the laptop area).  We have reached a point where a faster proc just isn't that noticeable to most end users (email, web browsing & small apps), in that huge segment price wins.  Of course using that argument AMD may need to watch out for the Intel's Atom proc.  

ATI is giving Nvidia a fight like it hasn't seen since the AGP days.

Also, It is my understanding that although AMD & Intel are dropping the suits (and waiving damages) it doesn't necessarily mean the government won't still pursue the matter and hand out some fines.

tinfoil hat edit - So the Ruiz press release hits weeks before this news and the stock drops 25%. Then this happens and the stock jumps 30%, so have we gone beyond insider trading into the realm of insider stock manipulation?

[Nebu]

I'd think that settlement would be huge when you consider it also means an end to dumping legal fees down an endless black hole. 

[Sky]

Like a thousand lawyers cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

[Salamok]

shortly after the settlement between the chip behemoths was announced, U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz issued a statement saying his office plans to "review the settlement between Intel and AMD in their private litigation," while noting that the agency "has an ongoing independent investigation of Intel's practices."

Meanwhile, a source close to New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the settlement does not the case recently filed by the state agency, saying, "This settlement is between two companies. We're suing Intel on behalf of the state of New York."

The European Union Commission also said in a statement that Intel "has an ongoing obligation to comply with the commission's May 2009 decision and with EU antitrust law," adding that the body "continues to vigorously monitor Intel's compliance with its obligations" under the ruling. Intel /quotes/comstock/15*!intc/quotes/nls/intc  (INTC  19.68, -0.16, -0.81%)  has appealed the EU fine and ruling.

Despite truce, Intel may still face government probes

[Sheepherder]

ATI is giving Nvidia a fight like it hasn't seen since the AGP days.

Did you miss the X1xxx / 7xxx generation of cards?

[Trippy]

ATI is giving Nvidia a fight like it hasn't seen since the AGP days.

Did you miss the X1xxx / 7xxx generation of cards?

That wasn't much of a fight.

The last time ATI was actually better than NVIDIA rather than just semi-competitive was during the 9700/9800 vs. 5xxx period.

[Sheepherder]

That wasn't much of a fight.

The last time ATI was actually better than NVIDIA rather than just semi-competitive was during the 9700/9800 vs. 5xxx period.

You mean the Nvidia generation that had to be ran in SLI to compete with single X1900 cards?

[Ozzu]

AMD easily got the better end of this. They can now go fab-less without Intel suing them. Expect them to sell off the rest of Global Foundries ASAP.