I am not an expert in antitrust law, but my belief and understanding is that monopolies per se are not illegal. (INTC does not have a true monopoly, but that is beside the point.) It is acts which suppress competition that our antitrust statutes deem illegal. If you know of any specific illegal practices designed to thwart competition that INTC commits, by all means bring them to our attention. But, believe me, INTC is a very high visibility company. If it did not keep its nose clean, the authorities would be all over them. Sanders has a fiduciary duty to his AMD shareholders to make sure that he uses all necessary means to enforce the law. If there were reasonable grounds for argument that antitrust violations have taken place, we would know about it.
Intel does not have a license to use profits from its virtual monopoly in x86 processors to systematically sustain losses in one market after another until it succeeds in driving out competition in them. One can argue objectively that such is not in the public interest and does constitute an unfair competitive practice which is actionable by the FTC under the law.
What I'm suggesting is that Sanders did fulfill his duty as you described it, that the FTC obtained cost and pricing information from Intel and determined that they lose money on every flash chip they make, that Intel dragged its feet as long as possible using as a pretext their corporate goal to get 80% of the flash market by yearend, that they failed in that unrealistic goal, and that given a deadline by the FTC, they wisely chose to stay out of court and raised prices instead.
My theory accounts for the fact that the 80% goal was so ridiculously impossible as to be unreasonable, it accounts for why Intel would raise prices as much as 40% in an industry where prices are always falling, it accounts for why the price increase is only effective Jan. 1, and it accounts for why Sanders bought $2 million worth of AMD stock on the day it was announced. The result will be good for Intel's bottom line and good for the industry, but Intel's flash market share will drop. |
