EU hands down record antitrust fine to Intel

EU regulators on Wednesday slapped a record 1.06 billion euro ($1.45 billion) fine on Intel Corp for antitrust violations and ordered it to halt illegal efforts to squeeze out arch-foe AMD.
Analysts say the move, which Intel CEO Paul Otellini vigorously contested, may help AMD recoup some of the market share lost to its bigger and nimbler rival over past years, but is not expected to radically transform Intel's operation.
The decision may also force US regulators to act, analysts say, with South Korea and Japan already accusing the company of antitrust violations.
Shares in Intel, which had slid 6 per cent since Reuters broke news of the impending sanction on May 7, closed at $15.13, down 8 cents or 0.53 per cent, while the Nasdaq fell 3 per cent.
AMD finished trade on the New York Stock Exchange up 3 cents, or 0.69 per cent, at $4.38. It had been up as much as 1.2 per cent earlier. The European Commission said the world's No.1 chipmaker paid computer makers to postpone or scrap plans to launch products using AMD chips, paid illegal rebates to encourage them to use Intel products and paid a retailer to stock only computers with Intel chips.
Intel argued the decision was based on weak evidence that must be reviewed on appeal to an EU court. "We do not have those kinds of conditions in our contracts. Our contracts are straightforward, consistent worldwide and they are volume-based: the more you buy, the less you pay," Chief Executive Paul Otellini said on a conference call.
"There is a significant amount of evidence that was either ignored or disregarded, or both."
The antitrust fine, imposed after an eight-year investigation, is the biggest the EU's executive Commission has imposed on a company. It surpassed the 896 million euro fine last year on glass maker Saint-Gobain for price fixing, and a 2004, 497 million euro penalty on Microsoft for abuse of dominance.
"Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years," European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told a news conference.