By DPA,
San Francisco: Computer chip giant Intel is to pay smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices $1.25 billion to settle claims that it violated anti-trust and patent laws, the companies said Thursday.
The move comes just days after Intel was sued by New York state for anti-trust violations and follows a $1.5 billion fine slapped on Intel by the European Commission for anti-trust offences.
In addition to the financial settlement with AMD, Intel also agreed to abide by a new set of business practices provisions and to a cross licence agreement for five years.
“While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development,” the companies said.
Intel chips power over 80 percent of PC’s and it has had a contentious relationship with AMD since the 1980’s. AMD filed suit against its much larger competitor in 205 alleging that the company abused its dominant position, in part by offering customers massive discounts and rebates if they refrained from buying AMD products.