Earnings

The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it will announce an antitrust settlement with Intel on Wednesday morning.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz will detail the settlement along with Bureau of Competition Director Richard Feinstein Wednesday at 7 a.m. PDT.

The commission's order will settle charges that "Intel Corporation used anticompetitive tactics that stifled innovation and harmed consumers in the market for computer microprocessors, graphics processing units, and chipsets," according to an FTC statement Tuesday. "The FTC's complaint, filed in December 2009, charged Intel with waging a systematic campaign to shut out rivals' competing microchips by … Read more

A preliminary ruling found that Intel's pricing practices did not hurt consumers, snapping a long legal losing streak for the chipmaker.

In a 112 page opinion, a special master for the U.S. District Court in Delaware recommended that the court deny class action status to plaintiffs seeking damages resulting from Intel pricing practices that, the plaintiffs alleged, "severely limit" PC makers from purchasing processors from Intel's competitors.

The "purposes and effect" was to exclude Advanced Micro Devices from the market, resulting in higher prices, according the plaintiffs.

Rejecting these allegations, Special Master Vincent … Read more

Advanced Micro Devices passed Nvidia in graphics chip shipments in the second quarter, according to a report from a marketing research firm on Wednesday, adding to Nvidia's woes.

AMD's ATI graphics unit took 51 percent of the standalone, or "discrete," graphics chip market compared to Nvidia's share that was just shy of 49 percent, according to Mercury Research, a Cave Creek, Arizona firm that tracks graphics chip shipments. This is a sharp reversal from the same period a year ago when Nvidia had about 59 percent of the market and AMD had just under 41 … Read more

Nvidia on Wednesday slashed its revenue projection for the company's second quarter, citing a significant sales shortfall and increasing costs.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based graphics chip supplier said it expects revenue for its second quarter ending August 1 to be lower than the guidance provided with the company's financial results for the first quarter. Nvidia supplies graphics processing units, or GPUs, to all major computer makers, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Apple.

Total revenue is now estimated at $800 million to $820 million, compared with the range of $950 million to $970 million provided on May 13, the … Read more

The Securities and Exchange Commission is revisiting allegations of a long, symbiotic relationship between Dell and Intel.

A complaint filed Thursday alleges Dell was a recipient of massive, multibillion-dollar, multiyear Intel payments in order to keep Dell from adopting processors from Advanced Micro Devices, an argument also put forward in an antitrust lawsuit last year by the New York attorney general and in an AMD 2005 lawsuit against Intel--settled last year--among other legal actions.

The SEC on Thursday announced a $100 million settlement with both Dell, the company, and Michael Dell, chairman and CEO. The PC maker is neither admitting nor denying the allegations in the SEC's complaint.

Dell, however, reiterated on Thursday that it had previously instituted remedial measures, including finance and accounting training, organizational structure changes separating the accounting function from the finance function, internal financial and accounting processes, and systems infrastructure investment to ensure effective, transparent accounting and appropriate internal financial controls.

Though Intel is not a party to the case, it made the following the statement: "We cooperated with the SEC in the case. Any characterization of Intel's relationship with Dell has not been tested or adjudicated by any court. This is strictly a settlement between Dell and the FTC."

The SEC filing on Thursday starts by alleging that "beginning at least as early as 2001, Intel began to provide additional 'rebates' to Dell and other personal computer makers that were not related to the contractual marketing program and that were different in character from ordinary course price discounts. No one disclosed these payments to the market."

The SEC continues, alleging that the percentage of Dell's operating income that was based on Intel payments increased dramatically between… Read more

Early findings by the U.S. Department of Transportation indicate that drivers were to blame in some sudden-acceleration accidents, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the results.

Preliminary results show some cases of driver error, the Journal reported Wednesday. "The early results suggest that some drivers who said their Toyotas and Lexuses surged out of control were mistakenly flooring the accelerator when they intended to jam on the brakes," the Journal said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has yet to release the findings and it declined to comment about them, the Journal … Read more

In the Intel earnings conference call Tuesday afternoon, CEO Paul Otellini said the company is getting ready to move quickly to its next-generation chip design, "Sandy Bridge."

Intel reported strong second-quarter earnings Tuesday on the back of corporate demand and high gross margins.

Otellini said in his opening remarks during the earnings conference call that Intel is expediting its factory "ramp" for Sandy Bridge.

"Due to the very strong reception of Sandy Bridge, we have accelerated our 32-nanometer factory ramp and have raised our capex (capital expenditure) guidance to enable us to meet the anticipated … Read more

Intel's second-quarter profit surged past the dismal earnings reported in the same period last year.

For the quarter, which ended period ended June 26, Intel earned $2.9 billion, or 51 cents a share, one of the biggest profit showings in its history. And it was a stark contrast with the loss of $398 million, or 7 cents per share, posted a year ago. Last year's results were pushed down by a $1.45 billion charge as a result of a European Commission antitrust fine.

Analysts had been expecting second-quarter earnings of 43 cents per share.

Revenue for … Read more

Intel chief executive Paul Otellini, speaking at the chipmaker's 2010 investor meeting Tuesday, talked about market growth for PCs, tablets, and "smart" TVs.

"In 2010, for the first time, PCs cross a million a day. A million PCs a day--built, shipped, and sold in the industry. By 2014, that number basically doubles, it approaches 700 million units (annually) as the near-addressable market for our company," he said during an event that was streamed on the Web.

And within five years, Intel expects to be shipping a billion chips per year in all device markets, he … Read more