NY AG May Be AMD's Only Friend (AMD, INTC)

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) is seeing shares down close to 2% today at $22.34 on word that New York Attorney General Cuomo is probing Intel on antitrust issues.  The truth is that this is an ongoing case as Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is supposed to have its own antitrust case against Intel heard in court in early 2009.  There have been more accusations of collusion, predatory practices, price fixing, and more than can be easily counted. 

The problem is that if this is such good news, you’d expect a monster rally in AMD shares.  Its shares are up only 5% after a meteoric dive and shares are only at $5.78.

Wall Street might not expect a settlement, and we aren’t sure that Intel or AMD would want to show their hands with a settlement.  Even if they do settle, that doesn’t mean that the Feds, states, foreign nations, nor the E.U. have to back down.  AMD needs all the friends it can get.

With the market share issues at hand, it’s hard to imagine that Intel will walk away entirely clean from this issue.  Even if Intel is given a slap on the wrist, the problems at AMD might persist.

Could the courts halt innovation?  Maybe we all want to go back to the old Pentium or 286 processor days after all.

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• Open Letter to Frank Clegg

Jon C. Ogg
January 10, 2008