The start of today’s expected antitrust trial against Intel Corp brought against the company by the Federal Trade Commission was postponed at the last minute yesterday, when the two sides reached an agreement to settle. But a wider investigation into Intel’s practices is still underway, warned the FTC. Simultaneously, reports that Microsoft Corp and the US Government were also looking into ways to settle their own antitrust battle began to emerge.
Few details about the terms of the Intel/FTC settlement, signed on Sunday after telephone negotiations, were forthcoming yesterday. But FTC spokesperson Victoria Sreitfeld told Associated Press that officials had set out to establish a principle [and] that in the proposed agreement, they achieved that goal. The deal isn’t final, and has to be voted on by the complete four-member commission over the next few days. The trial had been expected to last around three months.
Intel had been accused of using its market dominance to bully companies such as Compaq Computer Corp, Digital Equipment Corp and Intergraph Corp, cutting off access to technical information to win patent licensing agreements. Intel wasn’t denying that it had held back information, but claimed it only did so for legitimate business reasons and was within its rights. But as part of the settlement, it’s thought that Intel has agreed not to withhold information during future disputes. Intergraph later issued a statement saying it was hopeful that the settlement will protect the interests of the industry and ensure fair business practices by Intel in the future. Compaq, which has been more distant from the dispute since it acquired DEC, said it was pleased that the settlement had been reached and confident that the interests of Compaq, Intel, the industry and the government will be satisfied by settlement.
Intergraph, however, is still going ahead with its private lawsuit against Intel, which it says is a much broader case and includes antitrust violations, patent infringement, and illegal coercive behavior. Similarly the FTC is still looking into allegations that Intel has been guilty of monopolistic practices through integrating previously separate hardware functions into its core chip technology.
Craig Barrett, Intel’s president and CEO, called the settlement acceptable to both parties and…the result of a constructive dialog between Intel and the FTC. It appears to have been motivated by Intel’s desire to avoid the embarrassing publicity Microsoft has been subjected to in the Washington courtrooms over the last six months.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Times reported on Monday that settlement discussions were also underway between Microsoft and the government over ways to settle the antitrust trial, currently in recess until mid-April, outside of the courtroom. Microsoft declined to comment on the report, which cited people close to the case as the source.
