AMD, Intel Launch Subpoena Parade
06/22/06 - 02:58 PM EDT
Alexei Oreskovic
Updated from 1:56 p.m. EDT
The legal brigades of Advanced Micro Devices(AMD Quote - Cramer on AMD - Stock Picks) and Intel(INTC Quote - Cramer on INTC - Stock Picks) sprang into action Wednesday, serving more than 70 companies with subpoenas in the latest phase of a court battle between the two chipmakers. The list of third parties receiving document requests is a who's who of the tech industry, ranging from PC makers to software firms and electronics retailers. AMD sent subpoenas to 32 companies Wednesday, including PC makers Alienware (which was recently acquired by Dell(DELL Quote - Cramer on DELL - Stock Picks)), retailer Wal-Mart(WMT Quote - Cramer on WMT - Stock Picks) and software firms Adobe(ADBE Quote - Cramer on ADBE - Stock Picks) and BEA Systems(BEAS Quote - Cramer on BEAS - Stock Picks). The document requests represents AMD's second major batch of subpoenas, following its initial round of third-party subpoenas in October. The third parties have until the end of the year to produce documents that some believe will add up to hundreds of millions of pages in aggregate. AMD believes the documents will shed light on what it alleges are Intel's anticompetitive and monopolistic business practices. AMD sued Intel, the world's No.1 chipmaker, in June 2005 for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act, contending that Intel routinely coerced customers to exclude using AMD's chips. "Intel's conduct has unfairly and artificially capped AMD's market share and constrained it from expanding to reach the minimum efficient levels of scale necessary to compete with Intel as a predominant supplier to major customers," reads AMD's complaint, filed in federal court in Delaware. Despite the claims, AMD's microprocessors have managed to increase their market share in the past year, thanks to what many consider to superior performance and energy efficiency. The company's chips accounted for 21.1% of the x86 microprocessor market at the end of the first quarter, compared to 16.9% a year earlier, according to Mercury Research. Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy said that Intel maintains its business practices are both fair and lawful. He said Intel's subpoenas are simply a routine part of the discovery process as the company gathers evidence to make its case. Intel's document requests were sent to many of the companies already served by AMD in October, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard(HPQ Quote - Cramer on HPQ - Stock Picks) and Sun Microsystems(SUNW Quote - Cramer on SUNW - Stock Picks).
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