Heat Going Up On Intel

The battle continues

It wasn’t long time ago when Intel and AMD had a lawsuit settlement. Now, the FTC is turning the heat up on Intel by accusing it of “threats, bundled prices, or other offers to encourage exclusive deals, hamper competition, or unfairly manipulate the prices of its”. Looks like times are getting rough for Intel.

This piece of news was a bit awkward for me since I had the impression that the FTC wasn’t too much into antitrust law enforcement lately. Now that this situation has happened I have good reasons to believe that American policy makers have changed gears when it comes to fair market competition.

It is a known fact among the innovation management circles that monopolies tend to slow down innovation. Antitrust law is there to put in place the market fairness that is needed to encourage innovation.

The only issue was that not all U.S. administrations executed antitrust law in the same manner. When the position of leading American firms where good on global markets, American administrations had the reflex to cool down on antitrust law. But when things get rough in International scenes, the FTC was always there to make sure competition is happening in the local U.S. market.

Therefore, when I see that the FTC is stepping up and going for a Intel hunt, it kind of rings a bell for me. It makes me realize that American dominance of semiconductor industry seems to be in danger because the main guy (Intel) had a too easy for while and forgot about innovating.