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AMD: Antitrust ruling will unseat Intel

David Meyer and Tom Espiner ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 13 May 2009 17:06 BST

...to counter Intel's assertions in the European Court of First Instance, where the appeal will be heard. "The Commission has worked long and hard on the decision, and we are confident [the decision] will withstand the scrutiny of the court," the spokesman said.

Intel has already come under antitrust scrutiny in South Korea, where regulators said in June that they would fine the company $25.4m for abusing its dominant position in the local chip market.

The European Commission decision comes a day after Otellini told investors that Intel, which controls almost 80 percent of the microprocessor market, has seen better second-quarter orders than expected. AMD has just started gaining ground on Intel, with its last quarter's market share showing 4.6 percent growth to 22.6 percent of the x86 market, following five quarters of decline.

The Commission's decision is unlikely to make any significant change in market conditions, Gartner vice president Martin Reynolds said in a statement.

"The Intel-AMD market share is likely to remain roughly aligned with manufacturing capacity, adjusted for technology capabilities," Reynolds said. "Intel will pay its fine and carefully inspect its sales relationships to protect against risky influence. AMD does not receive any money from the fine, which accrues to the EU tax budget. Intel's greatest challenge will remain market growth, not market share."

Reynolds added, however, that the Commission's ruling would pave the way for civil cases against Intel. "The main case [is] due to go to trial in Delaware in 2010," he said. AMD filed a private antitrust suit against Intel in US District Court in Delaware in 2005.