AMD Flies the European Flag After Intel Fine
AMD is flying the flag for Europe on its website this week.
Most of last week's news discussing Intel or AMD, mentioned, at least in passing, Intel’s record breaking fine from the EU and it seems AMD is determined to keep on people's radars the fact that Intel got burned.
While most seem to think the flag and the corresponding message that reads, “European Commission finds Intel guilty of breaking antitrust laws, harming consumers,” is AMD’s attempt to rub salt in the wound and do a little gloating, we’re inclined to think differently.
For years, the company complained that Intel was attempting to drive it out of the market and last week, those claims were recognized and confirmed by the European Commission. AMD posting the news on its site is what we’d expect from any company. We spoke to AMD's social media strategist, Chris James (via twitter because that's where a social media strategist hangs out these days) and he said he hopes that the flag isn't widely being perceived in a negative light.
"I hope it's not widely being perceived that way," James tweeted. "But it's an important decision after a 9 year fight. EU consumers rejoice!"
That said, there’s probably tons of you who think differently and we want to know if you think the picture above is childish, or if you think it’s a natural state of progression for a ruling like this: one team gets a smack on the wrist and the opposition does its best to spread the word.
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Well, if Intel broke EU laws, they should pay. But why does the EC get the money? Shouldn't AMD get it?
This is like class action suits in the US, where the lawyers run off with the money.
Regardless of the verdict in this case, the way AMD is acting is a show of poor sportsmanship. It's best to let others speak of your triumph rather than showing if off yourself.
AMD was wronged, but I don't think shows much class. I've been running AMD chipsets on all my builds but Intel's taking their licks, I don't think trying to rub salt in the wound is the right approach.
i think its funny
I don't mind it (the flag on the website). A little amusing, sure, but not much more than that. It is nice to see the win for fair competition though
I just happened to go to the AMD website the day the verdict was in. I couldn't believe that they actually were gloating over this in this way while I was trying to download drivers.
I thought it was hilarious and sad at the same time.
They should spend more time and money advertising and less hoping for verdicts from governments.
Well, if Intel broke EU laws, they should pay. But why does the EC get the money? Shouldn't AMD get it?This is like class action suits in the US, where the lawyers run off with the money.
The EU is representing the millions of European customers who were affected by Intel's actions. This is not really about Intel vs AMD, although that is a small part of it. The EU issued this fine because they felt Intel's actions harmed consumers.
The European Commission does not exist to fight on the behalf of AMD. If AMD feels Intel's actions were anticompetitive (which it clearly does) it needs to address that issue with its own lawsuit.
The money from Intel goes to the EU's central budget, which reduces the contributions that Member States pay to the EU. In other words, that money goes to the countries who were affected by Intel's actions.
Well it sure has made me laugh hard. AMD must really hate Intel. Regardless It is interesting to see the two companys turn into children with one having stolen from the cookie jar and the other tattling , then shoving it in his face. xD It's like saying "HAHA! Intel got grounded!"
DXrick; It's like so many things that people get fined for. If your employer doesn't follow proper regulations and violates your rights, he gets fined and you get nothing. If AMD wants money, though, I don't see why they can't go after Intel with their own lawyers. I could be wrong, but the government decision should provide a legal precedent for Intel having been responsible for financial damages.
While im glad that intel got nailed and i do like AMD because it lets you get a good system without a ton of cash, the fact that it is in the middle of their homepage is kind of childish, they could have atleast been a bit more subtle about their gloating.
Since forever I've seen this "driving out of business" talks from AMD and I think that if EU found Intel guilty you HAVE to let your customers know that you were right all along. Why not? They fought for it, they have the right to it.
+1^ The EU is representing the people of europe that got ripped off and robbed by intel. The money goes directly to the economy which is then for the people of europe.
Now the real question: Will this affect larabee and six-core developement?
Hm, defending AMD will be poor sportsmanship!?! What sportsmanship is Intel showing? braking sportsman laws?
So if you cheat during sport is ok, but if you get cought from the judges and others aknowledge then they are not sportsmens ?!?
Wow, a lot of reason in this bullshit I smell.
Intel is wrong and was not playing by the rules. They must pay, and instead of defending them you must be happy because all this is in our favor the consumers.
Firmly in the "who cares" camp. I do find the "sportsmanship" comments amusing. It's not sport, it's business. Business is war without guns (well, except for arms dealers). The only reason there are rules has to do with the socialist nature of the governments (United States included, anti-trust laws are not pure capitalist, they are socialist). In a pure capitalist economy, the business goal "IS" monopoly. 100% market share is the best you can do, so why shoot for less. Well, because there are laws... :-)
This is pathetic by AMD, and quite frankly disgusts me. I was a big AMD fan when Jerry Sanders was running the company, but since Hector Ruiz took over, the company has had no class, and no direction. I see his leaving has not changed anything.
Big companies remain above petty pot-shotting. AMD should have been big, and said something like "it's unfortunate Intel had to pay this type of fine, but we felt it was necessary for our future to have a level competitive landscape". Or, "Intel is a fine competitor, and has added much value and innovation to the computer world. We feel like this should be the basis for their sales, and is something we feel we can match them in. We are happy these issues are behind us so the market can make decisions on the merits of our products alone." This is just pathetic, and makes me much less likely to buy AMD processors. It's so small time. Do you think Intel would have done the same? They never gloated when they crushed AMD with their superior products, and that is how big companies act. IBM was the same way, they never insulted anyone, or took petty pride in their undoings, at least publicly.
It's low class, from a company that has become low class. It is just not how businesses should act. Everyone knows this. Why didn't AMD???
It's particularly pathetic because they have such inferior products to Intel. It's coming from a position of weakness, not strength, and they just come off as a squeaking mouse.
Firmly in the "who cares" camp. I do find the "sportsmanship" comments amusing. It's not sport, it's business. Business is war without guns (well, except for arms dealers). The only reason there are rules has to do with the socialist nature of the governments (United States included, anti-trust laws are not pure capitalist, they are socialist). In a pure capitalist economy, the business goal "IS" monopoly. 100% market share is the best you can do, so why shoot for less. Well, because there are laws... :-)
Business is war but it's as much about PR as is it anything else. This is the equivilent to AMD teabagging Intel after a particularly bad beat down. As another poster said it's funny and sad all at the same time.
Hm, defending AMD will be poor sportsmanship!?! What sportsmanship is Intel showing? braking sportsman laws?So if you cheat during sport is ok, but if you get cought from the judges and others aknowledge then they are not sportsmens ?!?Wow, a lot of reason in this bullshit I smell.Intel is wrong and was not playing by the rules. They must pay, and instead of defending them you must be happy because all this is in our favor the consumers.
Maybe a better word would be "lack of class." It doesn't matter if you're right, you don't rub your opponents nose in it. Bad karma man, and it'll bite them in the rear one day.
I think that Intel and AMD should see the bigger picture here. If Microsoft and Linux can work together I am sure that Intel and AMD can too.
Jim Zemlin: Strange Bedfellows: The Linux Foundation and Microsoft
from Linux Foundation Weblogs
ps. The same trend is observed in EU. Looks like we are going to see much more government, judges and politicians involved in tech world.
AMD didn't win anything, they are not getting paid anything. They are actually a completely seperate third party in this lawsuit. Intel earned this fine, and the bad publicity it has produced for them. Not to say that this will not help AMD, but it isn't selling their chips, just giving them a chance to sell them, the consumers will still decide who is more popular.
I am not a fanboy in anyway, never have been, and probably never will run AMD, Intel is just faster, even if a little more expensive.
I don't get it. Why is it lack of class? I personally am an intel person but I don't see any problem with what AMD is doing. It is their choice and it's not like they are making it up. Plus there might actually be people who don't visit tom's or other tech sites but happen to venture to AMD's site for whatever reason and are unaware of the news. And just maybe they are trying to emphasize the character or lack there of this shows of Intel as a company and not themselves.
Sometimes you have to look outside your world. I think a lot of people are commenting based on this being overly common news. Which in the tech world it probably is but the tech world isn't the only one. I have yet to have seen this on the news in the morning when I wake up. Granted I might have missed it. But if I did then it definitely wasn't nearly as thorough as the news on the presidents dog and now the news on the toys they are making to resemble it (beanie baby type toys or something or other).
Also, is it no class or lack there of that Apple's commercials with the PC dude point out problems I am sure all of us here have experienced at least one of with Microsoft?
Anti-trust legislation is stupid. If Intel has created a near monopoly for itself by providing the vastly superior product for a few years, it deserves every bit of that market share.
Anti-trust legislation is stupid. If Intel has created a near monopoly for itself by providing the vastly superior product for a few years, it deserves every bit of that market share.
Anti-trust legislation is not stupid. Certainly if a company is simply making a better product, and other companies fall off the map, that is fine. The problem comes when they are doing anti-competitive practices, such as taking a loss on your product to put another company out of business, exercising anti-competitive contracts with suppliers that does not reflect the actual profits of the product and so on.
I don't know if Intel has recently gone into these practices, but MS has been known to do this.
Lets be honest here, the only people who are gonna see this are people headed to AMDs site to DL drivers. Keeping that in mind, who cares?
They do, but through licenses. Both companies are using tech that is licensed from each other. Intel is using the 64bit tech from AMD, AMD is using the 32bit from Intel, etc.
That even seems to be breaking down lately. See previous articles on Intel vs AMD and Intel vs NVIDIA. Intel's being a bit of a pain these past few months
I'm honestly not surprised. This is coming from the same company that handed out "Multicore Processing for dummies" at IDF; only to come back and use the same approach in Magny-Cours.
Here's a flashback for those defending AMD because they "help consumers". It's funny how in the short time they had performance leadership they start charging over $1,000 for their best stuff (Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and FX 57).
Let's face it, business is business. Take the emotions out of it and buy whatever is the most convenient for you at the time of purchase.
I'm an Intel user but not a fanboi, so I found it funny as hell.
But every AMD enthusiast I've ever met told me I was an idiot for using Intel due to their "unethical" business practices (the only unethical thing a business can do in their own eyes is not make money business 101). And posting this article on their website kind of playing into that fan base.
Doesn't make any less humorous just a ploy to fire up the fans. I really don't see a reason to be disgusted or anything like that. If AMD had of put anything that wasn't "news" (like "haha PWNED!") on the website I could see that response, but simply reporting "market related news" with a related graphic isn't something to get your panties in a wad over.
This is just one way for AMD to keep the pressure on. The game is far from over. Don't just expect Intel to roll over dead. They didn't get to where they are today by being stupid.
Some of you seem to forget that AMD had the performance + efficiency crown from 1999-2006, and the suit was first filed in 2000.
So why wasn't AMD given their fair share of the market? If they had, they might still be better. But quite simply, AMD ran out of money for R&D since the Core 2 Duo came out and Intel retook the lead in 2006.
Its bad form amd should STFU before some Intel exec uses his xmas bonus to buy amd for his kid. Talk about a fall from grace. first to the 64 bit main stream cpu, first duel cores, hipper transport , better production costs per unit. granted amd was only the faster option once in the last 10 years but they where always 10% slower for 30% less a business plan that works. now amd is in club of former keystone brands like sun,sgi,nortel that can be had for walking around money.
Oh yeah that's gonna make intel feel bad rub their faces in it that's going to make them stop playing hardball.