FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz described the misdirection during a news conference Wednesday to announce that the agency had reached a deal with Intel to settle its eight-month-old antitrust case against the company.
Though Intel has disputed the FTC's allegations about the Opteron and other aspects of its case, the chipmaker agreed to refrain from various actions the FTC said were anticompetitive and harmful to consumers and other companies.
Leibowitz contended that the Opteron case, in which he said Intel deceptively used its compiler to make the AMD chip appear responsible for sluggish computer performance, illustrated the potential for broader harm from Intel's tactics as the dominant chipmaker.
"If Mother Teresa ran a microchip company, she probably wouldn't have engaged in this kind of practice - that is, to disadvantage rivals," he said. "But it wouldn't have been illegal - except that the evidence showed Intel surreptitiously made it look as though that slowdown was AMD's fault."
In a news release, Intel said the settlement was an acknowledgment neither of any wrongdoing nor of any facts the FTC alleged.
"This agreement provides a framework that will allow us to continue to compete and to provide our customers the best possible products at the best prices," said Doug Melamed, Intel senior vice president and general counsel. "The settlement enables us to put an end to the expense and distraction of the FTC litigation."
In November, Intel said it had agreed to pay AMD, of Sunnyvale, Calif., $1.25 billion to settle all outstanding disputes between the companies, including antitrust and patent claims.
