AMD, Advanced Micro Devices, announced on Monday that the Department Of Justice has closed the investigation of ATI and Nvidia and that no action was taken. The investigation lasted two years and the two major video chip manufacturers were being suspected of conspiring to create a monopoly in the graphic cards market.

The antitrust regulators put ATI and Nvidia under investigation just as AMD bought ATI and just as Nvidia released its GeForce 8800 graphics card. At the time, AMD acquired ATI for the price of $5, 4 billion and by doing so it has acquired one of the strongest and most popular video chip manufacturers out there.

On December 1, 2006 AMD and Nvidia were issued subpoenas as part of a probe into possible anticompetitive practices within the "graphics processing unit and cards" industry.

The investigaton was launched after DoJ received several complaints that  AMD and Nvidia conspired to fix, raise, maintain, or stabilize the prices of graphics processing units and cards in violation of federal antitrust law and/or state antitrust law.

The fact that the investigation is finally over and that the Department Of Justice is not filing any criminal accusations is definitely good news for AMD as the company is struggling financially and has currently split into two separate operations. Ironically enough, AMD isn’t in the best financial shape due to the fact that it purchased ATI in 2006.

Nvidia also confirmed the fact that the Department Of Justice stopped their investigation without taking any action.
Monopoly is a thing that must at all causes be avoided as it can depress the economy, discourage competition and even close markets with some huge company controlling prices. In today’s world as companies become larger and larger and more specialized than ever, monopoly is really a thing officials should watch for and, ultimately, prevent.