Dell faces investor lawsuit over Intel pact: WSJ
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Dell Inc.  is facing an investor lawsuit alleging that it improperly accounted for hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from its long-time partner Intel Corp. , the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Friday.
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Will they or won't they? Dell execs remain elusive on AMD plans, but analysts say circumstances could push the two together.
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(InfoWorld) - AÂ federal judge in Delaware has dismissed portions of a class-action suit that accused Intel Corp. of violating antitrust laws. U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Farnan, in a ruling issued Wednesday, said that a U.S. court has no jurisdiction over the foreign conduct claims in a lawsuit that seeks monetary damages for U.S. consumers and businesses who purchased PCs with Intel chips. Those consumers say they were forced to pay too much because Intel used its near-monopoly position to bar computer makers from using Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) chips, thus eliminating competition and keeping prices artificially high. The case has no direct relation to the antitrust suit leveled against Intel in 2005 by AMD, but mirrors the same charges, said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. Farnan is hearing both cases, and in September made the same decision about the AMD version. The ruling means that even if the court found Intel guilty of forcing up prices, the plaintiffs could not calculate the damages they won by including PC sales by foreign vendors like Acer Inc., Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp., Mulloy said. They would have to base their claim solely on sales by U.S. vendors like Dell Inc., Gateway Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Still, both AMD and the foreign consumers will continue pressing their cases because Farnan also ruled they could use foreign evidence to build a domestic case against Intel. "AMD and the class [action suit] would need to sue Intel in foreign jurisdictions to recover monetary damages that were incurred outside the U.S.," said AMD spokesman Michael Silverman. "From our perspective -- and I suspect the class would say the same -- the critical piece was to gain access to that foreign discovery. In both cases, the judge has allowed that access." In addition, the class-action suit concerns only the harm caused to domestic customers, said Daniel A. Small, a lawyer for the firm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld and Toll, of Washington, D.C. who argued the plaintiffs' case. "We're pursuing very actively document discovery, both from Intel and from third parties," Small said. However, that effort hit a large hurdle on Monday, whenÂ Intel admitted it had lost many internal e-mail recordsÂ related to the AMD case, making it impossible to collect them as evidence. On Wednesday, the court gave Intel a deadline of April 10 to turn over an explanation of its e-mail preservation plan, a list of correspondence between the people responsible for following it and its plan to restore the lost data. Another challenge for the class-action suit is Intel's motion to dismiss the entire case because it says customers were never harmed by increased prices. Instead, Intel says it used its dominant market position to compete with AMD by decreasing prices, Small said. Farnan said Wednesday he would rule on that motion by the end of March. Â
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A civil suit filed in Florida by Dell and its Alienware subsidiary is giving insight into the enormous sums of money that can be made by creating Web pages full of advertising links.
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Complaint alleges that Dell failed to make required disclosures to the SEC and investors about the rebates.
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Tuesday&#39;s&#160;raid on Intel&#39;s Munich office&#160;by European Commission investigators marks the latest development in one of several antitrust cases that have dogged the world&#39;s largest chip maker for years. Here&#39;s a rundown of Intel&#39;s brushes with antitrust investigators and lawsuits around the world since 1990:1990Dec. 19: Microprocessor maker Cyrix filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Texas. &quot;Intel has engaged in a campaign of unlawful exclusionary practices to protect its coprocessor monopoly from competition by Cyrix,&quot; the company said in a statement.1991June 29: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) informed Intel that it was investigating the company&#39;s business practices.Aug. 20: Advanced Micro Devices brought a $2 billion antitrust lawsuit against Intel in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, alleging that Intel &quot;engaged in unlawful acts designed to secure and maintain a monopoly.&quot;Dec. 19: U.S. District Court Judge James Ware dismissed part of AMD&#39;s antitrust lawsuit against Intel because a four-year statute of limitations had passed for some actions listed in AMD&#39;s complaint. AMD declared its intention to press forward with the lawsuit anyway.1992May 28: Processor maker Chips and Technologies sued Intel for antitrust violations in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California. The claims were a response to a Feb. 1992 patent lawsuit filed by Intel.1993Feb. 4: Chips and Technologies agreed to dismiss its 1992 antitrust claims against Intel as part of a settlement to resolve a patent dispute between the two companies.July 15: The FTC completed its investigation into Intel&#39;s business practices, saying no evidence was found to support charges of anticompetitive behavior.1994Feb. 4: Cyrix dismissed its 1990 antitrust claims against Intel as part of a patent-dispute settlement between the two companies.1995Jan. 11: AMD and Intel announced a broad legal settlement that ended several court cases between the two companies, including the 1991 antitrust lawsuit filed by AMD.1997Aug. 27: The FTC requested additional information from Intel concerning its plans to acquire Chips and Technologies, citing antitrust laws. At the time, Chips and Technologies was a major supplier of graphics chips.Sept. 25: The FTC began a second antitrust investigation into Intel&#39;s business practices. This investigation was conducted separately from the review of Intel&#39;s offer to acquire Chips and Technologies.1998Jan. 13: The FTC decided not to seek an injunction against Intel&#39;s acquisition of Chips and Technologies but announced plans to &quot;continue the investigation into the lawfulness of the acquisition.&quot;April 23: The FTC ruled that an October 1997 legal settlement between Intel and Digital Equipment that included the sale of Digital Equipment&#39;s semiconductor division, including its Alpha processor, to Intel would violate U.S. antitrust law if completed. As a result, the FTC required Digital Equipment to offer licenses for its Alpha processor to both AMD and Samsung Electronics as part of the deal.June 8: The FTC issued an antitrust ruling against Intel. The FTC found that Intel stopped providing important technical information about its products to Digital Equipment, Compaq Computer, and Intergraph after the three companies took legal action against Intel to enforce microprocessor patents they held. Intel also threatened to stop selling microprocessors to those companies, the FTC said.1999March 17: The FTC accepted a settlement with Intel over the 1998 antitrust ruling. The agreement required Intel to refrain from withholding technical information from customers involved in intellectual-property litigation with the company, but did not constitute an admission of guilt on the chip maker&#39;s part.2000Sept. 26: The FTC ended its second investigation into Intel&#39;s business practices and decided to take no further action against the company.2004Apr. 8: The Fair Trade Commission of Japan (JFTC) raided the offices of Intel&#39;s Japanese subsidiary and several Japanese computer companies as part of an investigation into Intel&#39;s business practices.2005March 8: JFTC ruled that Intel violated Japanese antitrust laws and hurt competition in the country&#39;s processor market.March 31:&#160;Intel disputed the JFTC&#39;s findings, but did not contest them and agreed to refrain from certain business practices.June 27: AMD filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. The lawsuit detailed allegations of anticompetitive behavior by Intel in the U.S., Asia and Europe.June 30:&#160;AMD sued Intel&#160;in the Tokyo High Court and the Tokyo District Court, seeking more than $50 million in damages arising from the chip maker&#39;s anticompetitive actions in Japan.July 12: European Commission investigators raided the offices of Intel and PC manufacturers in several countries as part of an antitrust investigation.2006Feb. 9: Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) officials&#160;raided Intel offices in South Korea.July 17: AMD filed a complaint against Intel with Germany&#39;s Federal Cartel Office, claiming that a deal betwen Intel and retailer Media Markt blocked the sale of computers based on AMD processors at hundreds of retail outlets.Sept. 11: European Commission antitrust officials announced plans to investigate the complaint filed in Germany by AMD against Intel and Media Markt.2007July 27: The European Commission&#160;charged Intel with antitrust violations. It accused Intel of offering rebates to PC manufacturers that buy the majority of their processors from Intel, paying PC manufacturers to delay or cancel products based on AMD processors, and selling processors below cost when bidding against AMD for contracts with server makers.Sept. 12: The KFTC issued preliminary antitrust charges against Intel while continuing its investigation into the company&#39;s business practices in South Korea.2008Jan. 10: The New York State Attorney General launched an antitrust investigation of Intel. The chip maker was served with a subpoena seeking information on its pricing practices and &quot;possible attempts to exclude competitors through market domination.&quot;Feb. 12: European Commission investigators raided Intel&#39;s office in Munich. The offices of retailers Media Markt and DSG International were also raided by investigators.
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Chipmaker Intel  said on  Monday it had responded to antitrust charges filed by the  European Commission and would seek a hearing, an Intel  spokesman and a Commission spokeswoman said on Monday.
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Dell's $155 million acquisition of MessageOne, a company co-founded by Michael Dell's brother, raises conflict-of-interest concerns.
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(InfoWorld) - A district court judge in the U.S. state of Delaware has dismissed part of Advanced Micro Devices' lawsuit against Intel. The dismissed claims relate to alleged business practices of Intel that AMD claimsÂ affected sales of its own microprocessors. Intel petitioned the court toÂ have the claims dismissedÂ because it said that while AMD is headquartered in the U.S. it manufactures its processors in Germany and assembles them in Malaysia, Singapore and China. AMD is already seeking damages through the Japanese courts, European Commission and Korea Fair Trade Commission for the same business practices that are alleged in the U.S. lawsuit. Because the alleged harm was suffered outside the U.S. and because AMD is seeking redress overseas, Intel argued that the allegations fall outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts, according to a memorandum opinion from the court. AMD contended that it is not seeking such "foreign commerce claims" and that the x86 microprocessor market is a global market and that Intel's conduct in overseas markets had an effect on its business in the U.S. "AMD has not demonstrated that the alleged foreign conduct of Intel has direct, substantial and foreseeable effects in the U.S. which gives rise to its claim. AMD's allegations, taken in the light of the most favorable to AMD, describe a foreign effect and a foreign harm that have had ripple effects for the domestic market, but have not had any direct, substantial or reasonable effect which would give rise to an antitrust claim within the jurisdictional reach of the Sherman Act. Accordingly, the court will dismiss AMD's claims based on alleged lost sales of AMD's microprocessors to foreign customers," U.S. District Judge Joseph Farnan wrote in his conclusion. Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman, said, "We are pleased that the judge appears to have agreed with out legal argument to remove those aspects of the case outside U.S. jurisdiction." He declined further comment until a conference with the judge takes place on Wednesday. AMD could not immediately be reached for comment. AMD, the long-time No. 2 player in the microprocessor market, jolted the IT industry in June last year when it filed its broad lawsuit against rival Intel. The suit alleged Intel had managed to maintain a monopoly in the PC processor market by illegally coercing customers around the world into using its products. The 48-page court filing identified 38 companies that, AMD alleged, had been coerced into using Intel processors at the expense of competing chips from AMD. Included are almost all of the large companies in the PC and server market, such as Dell, Sony, Gateway, and IBM. Among the allegation, AMD said Fujitsu Siemens Computers was offered a "special discount" on Celeron processors in return for hiding AMD-based computers on its Web site and removing references from its retail catalog. Also, at the 2004 Super Computing Show, an annual conference devoted to high performance computing, Intel offered computer makers money to remove AMD systems from their booths.
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Computer maker Dell Inc.  filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday to delay its third-quarter financial report, citing ongoing regulatory investigations into its accounting and financial reporting matters.
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Computer maker Dell Inc. DELL.O said   on Monday that an expanding government accounting probe has   caused the company to cancel a meeting with Wall Street   analysts for the second time this year and that it will suspend   stock buybacks.
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China's largest chip maker is seeking damages in U.S. court from rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.Â (TSMC) for alleged breach of contract, widening a legal battle with TSMC that erupted last month.
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A negative financial update from  Advanced Micro Devices Inc. late on Monday raised a potentially  ominous sign for semiconductor stocks ahead of Tuesday's  bellwether earnings report from Intel Corp.
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(InfoWorld) - Stock in Dell was rising Monday on news thatÂ founder Michael Dell plans to remain as CEO for several years, trim the number of managers reporting directly to him, and eliminate bonuses. "We have a tough couple of quarters ahead. We didn't get here overnight, and we won't fix things overnight either," Dell wrote in a memo to employees on Friday. "Last year ... we had great efforts but not great results. This is disappointing, and it is unacceptable." Dell pointed to several problems with the company, including an overgrown bureaucracy and operating expenses that had grown too fast. "We have great people ... but we also have a new enemy: bureaucracy, which costs us money and slows us down. We created it, we subjected our people to it, and we have to fix it!" Dell said. "I am asking each of you to look across your organizations and eliminate redundancies." On Monday, a corporate spokeswoman confirmed the authenticity of the memo, which had been leaked to media over the weekend. The company has been buffeted in recent days by the resignation of CEO Kevin Rollins last Wednesday,Â Michael Dell announcing he would take over that job, and the accusation inÂ a lawsuit by investorsÂ on Friday that 15 top executives had garnered millions of dollars by selling their stock after propping up the company's faltering revenue with secret payments from Intel. Even before those blows landed, Dell was wobbling on a threat by the Nasdaq stock exchange to drop its stock unless the company files its overdue quarterly earnings reports.Â Dell has delayed filing those numbers for the past two terms as it struggles to satisfy an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of its accounting practices. It is not yet clear if that investigation is related to the investors' charges that Dell hid payments by Intel in exchange for staying exclusively loyal to one brand of microprocessor in its PCs. When Michael Dell announced on Wednesday he would return to his position as CEO, the company was already in the midst of a reorganization plan that calls for $100 million in spending to improve the customer service practices that allow it to bypass retail stores with its famed "direct sales" business model. The company was also following Rollins' plan toÂ remake itself as "Dell 2.0,"Â trying to move beyond an enormousÂ notebook PC battery recall in August by focusing on industrial design, overseas factories, and a move to diversify its computers by using chips fromÂ AMD as well as those from Intel. In his Friday memo, Dell added new details to that strategy. He promised to turn around the company by focusing on the SMB sector, enterprise servers and storage, shorter design cycles for new products, and increased sales in emerging markets. He also made a few corporate changes, recalling Paul Bell from his job running the company's markets in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) to lead Dell's new Americas group, which includes the fast-growing SMB sector. Dell also created a "global operations" division to focus on manufacturing and procurement. "I remember what it's like to start a company. We're moving fast. There is no luxury of time. The competitors are fierce. The difference is this time we have many new assets and some hidden ones that can be brought out," he wrote. Dell did not describe the hidden assets he would use to rescue his company's prospects, but he hinted that Dell had enough resources to outspend its competition. AlthoughÂ Dell handed the title of world's largest PC vendor to HP this year, it is still a corporate colossus. "When I started back in 1984, it was just me. But now we are blessed to have an awesome team, many great assets, and $11 billion or so," Dell said. Â
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update Infineon Technologies will plead guilty to taking part in an international DRAM price-fixing conspiracy, which affected such companies as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Apple, the US Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
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Dell Inc.  said on Thursday it  received a delisting notice because it was late in filing a  quarterly financial report and plans to request a hearing  before a Nasdaq panel.
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The class-action lawsuit filed against Dell Computer on Wednesday makes a complex case, and does not provide much evidence to back up some of its principal pillars other than citing Internet blogs and press reports. Intel is involved, though only peripherally. There are leaps of logic one must take to accept its premises. But whatever the case's outcome, it has already damaged Dell.