With New York filing antitrust charges against Intel Corp. this week, industry watchers say the Federal Trade Commission will join the fray against the chip maker, maybe even before the end of the year.
N.Y. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo leveled the state's suit against Intel on Wednesday, adding one more log on the legal pile for Intel, which has been dealing with related legal issues in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Korea.
This latest suit piggybacks on a lawsuit filed by Intel's biggest rival, AMD, in U.S. District Court in 2005, and expected to go to trial this coming spring.
But industry analysts say if the FTC launches its own legal attack against Intel, it will be a whole new ball game for the chip company.
"It wouldn't surprise me to see the FTC jump into the fight with an antitrust action of their own against Intel, if only so that they don't look like they're being lazy in the face of actions from the European Union and now New York," said Dan Olds, principal analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group.
"If this happens, it could result in a very long, drawn out legal battle that could make WWI trench warfare seem quick and efficient by comparison," he said.
Rumors started circulating on Wednesday that Cuomo's office had been in talks with the FTC before it filed its own charges this week.
John Balto, a former policy director at the FTC and currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, told Computerworld that the FTC has been working long and hard on a case against Intel. He contends the FTC probably will seek an injunction against the company, and that there's a good chance it would come in the next few months.
"I know the FTC is devoting a tremendous amount of time and effort to this,"Balto said. "I think we can look forward to the FTC filing an action that would be much more significant than those brought by AMD and the New York Attorney General."
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Source: Computerworld
By: Sharon Gaudin
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