AMD expands charges against Intel

AMD claims it has found more evidence that Intel put PC makers such as Dell, IBM and HP under pressure to prevent them from buying AMD processors. One of AMD's lawyers claims Intel pays people not to deal with AMD and says they've discovered e-mail exchanges between top executives at large PC makers and at Intel showing that Intel took illegal measures to exclude AMD from the market.

A new filing in AMD's antitrust case against Intel points to actions involving PC makers that include Dell Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. But the 108-page document, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Delaware and unsealed Monday, has most details blacked out under a protective order that restricts disclosure of trade secrets and other confidential dealings by parties involved in the lawsuit.

AMD, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., in June 2005 filed an antitrust complaint against Intel, claiming that its larger rival illegally maintained a monopoly in the market for microprocessors, the chips that serve as the electronic brains in computers. Its latest filing reflects information from more than 200 million pages of documents from Intel and others gathered during the discovery phase.

They show, said AMD lawyer Charles P. Diamond of O'Melveny & Myers LLP in Los Angeles, that "Intel pays people not to deal with AMD." Included, he said, are passages from email exchanges between top executives at large computer makers and at Intel showing that Intel took illegal measures to exclude AMD from the marketplace.

"Everything that you would want to read is blacked out," he said. "We cite chapter and verse, and we name names."

Intel, in a two-part brief of its own, denied that it engaged in anticompetitive conduct and argued the microprocessor market is competitive. It said that AMD is looking for court protection from actions that amount to discounting and other lawful forms of price competition. "AMD's complaint about Intel's discounting boils down to a compliant that Intel is a more efficient competitor," Intel stated in its filing.

More details at WSJ. AMD demands an additional 9-10 months to depose witnesses to build and present its case and expects the trial to begin in April 2009.