Cheney and Bush won't let antitrust actions happen
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Here's a choice, quoted from EBN (and taken from the AMD Mod Thread, thanks Maui):
ebnews.com
Analysts said the deal could stir protests and possible antitrust complaints from Sun Microsystems, which is gearing up for a titanic battle against Intel's efforts to move heavily into the 64-bit server and workstation market.
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First, this is not a "deal" in the sense of requiring SEC/FTC/DOJ approval, in the way the GE/Honeywell deal did, for example. This is largely a decision by Compaq to drop significant future work on the Alpha and to transfer some people and technology to Intel.
This makes Antitrust action unlikely.
Second, the Anti-Intel, Anti-Microsoft Pro-Gore Axis LOST THE ELECTION. The consortium of Intel- and Microsoft-bashing tech companies bet on Al Gore. He lost.
Just as the charges against MS are about to be refsnarted back to the lower courts and ultimately will fizzle away, action against Intel is impossible to imagine. Neither Cheney nor Bush will support action against Intel.
Sun thought the world would adopt their processors because of Java...didn't happen. Netscape thought they would become the "next Microsoft," because the browser would become the OS...didn't happen.
With Sun's UltraSPARC falling further behind, expect them to also cut a deal to adopt IA-64.
We are seeing at the high end just a replay of the "industry standard, open architecture" history seen in the 1980s and 90s with PCs.
--Tim May |
