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New York attorney general drops Intel antitrust lawsuit

Intel and the New York state Attorney General have reached an agreement to drop the AG's suit against Intel.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
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The New York Attorney General has agreed to terminate its antitrust lawsuit against Intel.

Intel and the New York Attorney General have agreed to terminate the AG's lawsuit alleging violation of U.S. and state antitrust laws that was filed by the New York Attorney General in November 2009, Intel said today.

The agreement, which follows a December 2011 court ruling that reduced the scope of the New York lawsuit, "expressly states that Intel does not admit either any violation of law or that the allegations in the complaint are true, and it calls for no changes to the way Intel does business."

The agreement includes a payment of $6.5 million from Intel that is intended only to cover some of the costs incurred by New York in the litigation.

Intel general counsel Doug Melamed made this statement:

Following recent court rulings in Intel's favor that significantly and appropriately narrowed the scope of this case, we were able to reach an agreement with New York to bring to an end what remained of the case. We have always said that Intel's business practices are lawful, pro-competitive and beneficial to consumers, and we are pleased this matter has been resolved.
Intel has already paid out hefty sums to settle lawsuits and/or reach agreements with Advanced Micro Devices ($1.25 billion), Nvidia ($1.5 billion), and the European Commission ($1.45 billion--though this case has been appealed).

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But the New York Attorney General's suit is a big weight off Intel's shoulders, as the original lawsuit was full of potentially damaging accusations.

That lawsuit alleged that Intel gave Dell massive rebates totaling in the billions of dollars over a period of, at least, several years. And it cited revealing e-mail exchanges between Intel and Dell executives.

"In pure dollar terms, Dell was far and away the leader in receiving Intel's largess," the complaint alleged at the time. "For example, over the four-year period from February 2002 to January 2007, it received approximately $6 billion in 'rebates'."

And the attorney general, at the time, cited a 2002 Dell document titled "Intel Funding Overview" that allegedly stated that Dell loyalty to Intel meant "no AMD processors."