The company is
suspected to have had an anticompetitive conduct towards its smaller rival,
Sunnyvale-based Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
During this past week,
the FTC has sent subpoenas to Intel, AMD and several major computer makers that
have been buying semiconductors produced by the two companies.
Intel issued a written
statement that said it has started working with the FTC in 2006 "on an
informal inquiry into competition in the microprocessor market and has provided
the commission staff with a considerable amount of information and thousands of
documents."
The company went on to
say it would willingly cooperate with the comission’s investigation, as it
"believes its business practices are well within
This is not the first
time Intel finds itself in such a situation. According to the Korea Fair Trade
Commission, between 2002 and 2005, Samsung Electronics Co. and Trigem Computer
Inc. were offered $37 million in rebates by Intel, so that the two companies
would not buy chips made by AMD.
Last year, the
European Commission (EC) forwarded allegations that Intel paid certain computer
manufacturers in order to delay or even cancel the launch of products
containing AMD technology. FTC officials will be the judges of whether or not
Intel is at fault.