The latest litigation has Intel Inside.
The State of New York is going after Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) over antitrust allegations. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is accusing the largest chip manufacturer in the world that it is trying to secure a global monopoly for microprocessors.
For several years, Cuomo said that Intel has pushed the likes of Dell (NYSE: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) to agree to the exclusive use of Intel's gear in exchange for billions of dollars in payments. The hefty cash outlays have given what Cuomo called a "stranglehold" on the market.
Intel wasn't available for comment when The Associated Press reached out. Meanwhile, Cuomo had time for a conference call with the media, during which he objected to the "my way or the highway" approach he's accusing Intel of having adopted. Of course, he continued, "We intend to stop them." With this lawsuit, filed in Delaware, Cuomo is hoping to prohibit what he believes is further anti-competitive behavior ... and recover some cash.
I have to ask: does this move make any sense? Not politically, of course. There's always an audience for antitrust play, but chatter about Intel's practices has been going on for years. And, we've seen other tech companies pursued – such as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) – and the results weren't exactly earth-shattering. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) also appears to be in regulators' sights, again with the probability of nothing happening but the consumption of taxpayer cash.
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