AMD Receives DOJ Subpoena Over Graphics Processing
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Ongoing antitrust investigation, possibly regarding price fixing, extends to Advanced Micro Devices.
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(InfoWorld) - E-mail messages from some of Intel's most senior executives are among those that should have been preserved but were not after the chip-maker was sued for alleged antitrust violations by Advanced Micro Devices, according to a court transcript released by AMD. IntelÂ revealed last weekÂ that some internal e-mails that may be important to the case were missing as a result of errors. The transcript, from a status conference on March 7, indicates that Intel Chairman Craig Barrett and President and CEO Paul Otellini were among those not in compliance with the company's document retention policies. The executives apparently deleted the e-mail messages, including some to Intel's largest customers, because they were under the false impression that Intel was automatically backing up their e-mail, according to the transcript. "But the last category that I am very worried about is the senior management -- and I'm talking executive level Barrett and Otellini," said AMD attorney Linda Smith, according to the transcript. "This is the absolute top level. And these are the folks that, even if there's only a two-, three-, four-month gap, they're the major players who are communicating with the heads of other companies." E-mail messages from several hundred Intel employees have been requested by lawyers for AMD. Some employee e-mail was lost because workers failed to move messages from their "sent" folder into other folders and it was automatically deleted, while others were lost because Intel failed to notify hundreds of employees to retain e-mails related to the case. Intel representatives in London declined to comment. Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy told the Wall Street Journal that the missing information represents "a small proportion of the tens of millions of pages of documents" that Intel will provide in the case. "There is no evidence whatsoever that any relevant e-mails or documents have been lost," he told the Journal. AMD filed its lawsuit against Intel and its Japanese subsidiary, Intel KK, in 2005, alleging that Intel engaged in anti-competitive practices to support its monopoly in the PC processor market. The lawsuit claims that Intel coerced 38 hardware manufacturers, including Dell and Sony, into using only Intel processors and stopping the promotion of AMD products. Intel denies the charges. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, covers Intel operations in North America, Asia, and Europe. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Graphics chip maker Nvidia found some irregularities in past stock-based compensation practices during an internal probe, and took a total of $127 million in non-cash charges over associated expenses, the company said Wednesday. The figure fell within theÂ $150 million chargeÂ Nvidia said it might have to take. The company also amended financial results for its fiscal year 2006 and the first two quarters of 2007 as a result of the internal probe. The non-cash charge and amendments to previous financial statements ends its internal probe, but an inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) remains ongoing, Nvidia said. The restated earnings reports did not have a material impact on Nvidia's operating results, it said. The company plans to cooperate fully with the SEC. A number of technology companies have launched reviews over stock-based compensation to employees, finding instances in which stock options have been dated back to a time when the stock had hit a low. The practice is unfair to shareholders and was made almost impossible to legally execute by Sarbanes-Oxley, and for good reason. Stock options were designed as a way for employees to share in the success of the company and give them an added incentive. But by back-dating the options, employees -- often executives -- were essentially given shares that were already valuable. So far, stock options probes, carried out either by companies themselves or by the SEC, have affected over 160 companies.Â Investigations at memory chip developer RambusÂ andÂ security software vendor McAfeeÂ  have led to the resignation or firing of top executives.Â Apple ComputerÂ could be kicked off the Nasdaq by Dec. 29 if it fails to submit its SEC Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 1 July 2006, and any required restatements linked to its stock options probe by that time. Other companies have faced shareholder lawsuits over the issue.
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Blog: In an apparent answer to similar AMD technology, Nvidia is working on a dual-graphics solution it's calling Hybrid SLI.
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The New York attorney general has launched a formal investigation  to determine whether Intel violated antitrust laws to squeeze out AMD.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has subpoenaed Advanced Micro DevicesÂ as part of an antitrust investigation into the market for graphics processors and graphics cards, AMD said Thursday. AMD recently entered the graphics chip business with itsÂ acquisition of ATI Technologies, which was finalized last month. The DOJ has not made any allegations against AMD or ATI, and AMD intends to cooperate with the investigation, it said. While the DOJ hasn't said specifically what it is investigating, one industry analyst speculated that the case could be about price fixing. The DOJ has alreadyÂ charged a number of chip companiesÂ in the DRAMÂ memory chip market for price fixing, and isÂ investigating severalÂ in the SRAM (Static RAM) chip market. "If the DOJ wanted to, it could just go down every line in the semiconductor industry and find the same issue," said Gartner analyst Richard Gordon. That's because there are a relatively few number of suppliers in the chip industry and an open flow of communication between competitors and customers, who may not define price fixing the same way the DOJ does, he said. The investigations are unlikely to benefit end users, according to Gordon. Historically, prices in the chip industry have gone up and down based on supply and demand and he doubts that such investigations will result in lower pricing. A spokeswoman for AMD in Europe, Hollis Krym, said she did not know if the investigation has a broad scope and includes other graphics chip companies or if it is in the context of the ATI acquisition. U.S. antitrust authorities have already approved AMD's merger with ATI. In the DRAM market, the DOJ has charged Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor America, Elpida Memory, and Infineon TechnologiesÂ with price fixing and sentenced the companies to pay multi-million dollar fines. Sony, Cypress Semiconductor, and the U.S. arms of Mitsubishi Electric, Samsung Electronics, and Toshiba have all been asked to turn over information to the DOJ for an investigation into SRAM price fixing.
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Chip maker Intel is being investigated by New York Attorney General following anti-trust concerns.
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The special master appointed to hear evidence from both parties in the AMD v. Intel antitrust case has recommended that Intel be compelled to produce documents for evidence that it had previously declined to submit. If Judge Joseph A. Farnan, Jr., agrees, Intel may be asked to produce evidence of what AMD alleges to be "foreign misconduct" on Intel's part.
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American Financial Group Inc. AFG.N  said on Monday its property and casualty insurance unit  received a subpoena from New York Attorney General Eliot  Spitzer's office concerning legal malpractice insurance.
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Intel should have to share documents that could show it used monopolistic practices to force overseas PC vendors and retailers to shun Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) chips, the special master to a U.S. federal court recommended Friday.
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Automotive parts supplier Delphi Corp. (NYSE: DPH) received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission in late July in connection with agreements with Electronic Data Systems Corp.
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Delaware judge limits scope of anti-trust case Intel's lawyers will have their laptops searched at one less airport, after a US district judge limited the scope of AMD's antitrust action against the company.â¦
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In a troubling development late Monday, AMD filed a brief with US District Court Judge Joseph J. Farnan, Jr. accusing Intel of having destroyed e-mails and other documentation that may have been important to its antitrust case.
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(InfoWorld) - Intel should have to share documents that could show it used monopolistic practices to force overseas PC vendors and retailers to shun Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) chips, the special master to a U.S. federal court recommended Friday. Intel is expected to contest the recommendation by Special Master Vincent Poppiti, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, before the matter comes before a judge on Jan. 12 for a final ruling. This is the latest round in aÂ long-running legal battleÂ that is scheduled to be decided in a case court beginning in April 2009. AMD has charged that Intel used its overwhelming 80 percent share of the worldwide microprocessor market to violate antitrust laws through coercive acts such as threatening to withhold incentive payments to PC vendors if they specified AMD chips in their products. In September, Intel got a boost when District Court Judge Joseph FarnanÂ ruled that Intel would not have to share those records, since U.S. courts had no jurisdiction over such actions alleged to have occurred in other countries. In return, AMD argued that foreign actions could also impact sales to U.S. customers, despite the fact that its chips are manufactured in Dresden, Germany, and sold to overseas customers. Poppiti's recommendation agrees with AMD's motion, reasoning that the market for x86 microprocessors is global, so Intel's behavior worldwide could serve as evidence in a U.S. antitrust case. Poppiti was appointed to make recommendations to the court related to the discovery phase of the case in which the sides share documents that can be used as evidence. "We are encouraged that the special master recognizes the importance of obtaining all evidence of Intel's wrongdoing, regardless of where it occurs, to demonstrate the impact it has had on AMD's domestic and export business," AMD spokesman Michael Silverman said in an e-mail. Intel lawyers are still reviewing Poppiti's recommendation, and have not yet decided whether they will file additional arguments by Dec. 27, Intel spokesman Chuck Molloy said in an e-mail. Â
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Advanced Micro Devices' allegations that Intel execs lost documents relating to its antitrust case against the chipmaker have been hashed out by the companies' respective lawyers in a telephone meeting with court Special Master Vincent Poppiti.
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Sun Microsystems has added nVidia Quadro graphics technology to the Java Workstations it detailed last month. The vendor has included the technology in its W1100z and W2100z models, which are based on AMD
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Andrew M. Cuomo issued a wide-ranging subpoena to Intel as part of an investigation into whether the company violated federal or state antitrust laws in the way it priced and sold microprocessors.