Hot off Yahoo News, yet another country that has found Intel guilty of anti-trust violations; although $25M is a drop in the bucket.

Read the article here.

What does that mean?!?! First, Nick Jacobs says that Intel, "...are not doing and never have done..." but then follows it up with, ""We don't
use rebates in an anticompetitive fashion." is seemingly a direct contradiction. So which is it? Intel has never offered rebates? Or, they offer rebates but not in an anticompetitive fashion?

As Homer Simpson once said, "I'm not NOT licking toads."

25$? While i don't know the details and more importantly the sales that intel gained thanks to this, it looks more a "yep you did that but we don't really care" kind of ruling.

Intel doesn't care about this. Looks a little frivolous.

Was I the only one expecting this to be a thunderman post??

I doubt a measly $25M slap on the wrist will even phase Intel...

I wonder if that $25M has to be paid in USD or korean WON considering the exchange rates....

Theyre sounding like Bill Clinton I never had sex or I smoked it but didnt inhale heheh or by another great dem, I voted for it before I voted against it. Which is it? Just depends on if is is

25M is chump change for Intel whose quarterly profit is in the billions!.

@ evongugg - I'm quite sure Intel does care about this, regardless of the perception. Fact remains this is another governing body that has found them guilty of anti-trust. And, no matter how you gloss it over, that's just not good for business.

@ tgmchuck - I would imagine that the $25M is the USD equivalent of the Korean WON.

@ BGP_Spook - Totally chump change! What's 25 cents when you've got a thousand dollars in your pocket. This won't even be a blip on the bottom line. Heck, I bet the Board or Directors' yearly bonuses are more than $25M!!!!

@ outlw6669 - Thunderman post? This post wasn't created to bash Intel. I'm an ardent supporter of a free market, fair competition, and consumer choice. No company deserves a mulligan if they intentionally use their influence to limit consumer choice.

You'd have to be ignorant to the past to not have recognized that, for at least 3-4 years, you could not buy a Dell with an AMD processor, could not buy an HP with an AMD processor, or could not buy a Gateway with an AMD processor. And, you'd have to even more ignorant to beleive that it was because of AMD's "inferior" product; not when at the time the enthusiast processor of choice was the Athlon64 and/or anything Skt939.

It is what it is.

Funny watching fanboys coming out and defending whats happened. It is what it is. Lokk, I like Intel too, but theyve benn found GUILTY here. Live with it. They broke the law . Live with it. They used unethical means for their own personal gains. They broke the law. No biggie, just a company doing business. Good for THEM. How does this help us, the consumer? Not at all, as with this response, if its held within Intels own boardroom as no biggie, were apt to see it again. Or do you really think Intel just disregaurds this?

Never claimed otherwise chunky. Just commenting on title of the post as it was seen on the main page. In fact, I completely agree that Intel is being anti-competitive against AMD.

And there his post is.
Almost the same name even

Did you say 25 miiiiillllllion dollars! ahahahaha would you like me to cut a check for that right now?

The rebate thing is kinda a wierd thing to me. Its wierd b/c all companies will offer rebates to get you to buy their product. They don't give you a rebate to go and buy other companies products. I mean you can get them on anything. End of year car sales have rebates to get you to buy their cars so they can have more sales and have more of the market.

Thats why I am iffy on it. Why is it that we have a free market and limit some companies in what they can do to get sales. I know its mainly b/c Intel has like 80% of the market share but still its not truly a free market.

I know if I was building PCs and Intel or AMD said buy these and we will give you a rebate I would accept it as that means I will save some money on parts and gain some when I sell the stuff.

Other than that its the norm. Remember S Korea may have different laws than here so what Intel did may be anticompetative in other ways than its considered here. As for the fine, chump change.

Say your store/company buys 800 cpus, the cpus company says, if you buy 1000 we will discount you. Thats fine, no problems. Open market with incentives. If the cpu company says, you have sell only our chips, or any percentage, then the market becomes closed, or controlled, no longer open and free. This is how I see it, and Im thinking thats the rules that were broken. I may be wrong, as I havnt read all the ruling

I know what you say jaydee is true. But the way all these news articles post it it never says Intel forces them to not sell AMD but uses the rebates to get them to buy more Intel chips.

As I said its all respective. I wish they would give me $25M.....

Me too!!!! Im hoping this all comes to light soon, and see just what Intel has or hasnt been doing wrong. I dont look at this as a get even against Intel. I just worry that the largest cpu supplier would either do illegal activities, or its easy money for distant governments to muscle their way, and make money along the way.