Time to settle down
In a shock move, AMD and Intel just announced they have reached a settlement on both the pending antitrust suit and IP disputes, with Intel also paying AMD over a billion dollars in damages.
The "comprehensive agreement" between the firms puts all outstanding legal disputes between the companies to bed, most notably AMD's case against Intel in Delaware over antitrust, and Intel's dispute of a patent cross license.
Intel had notified AMD that it believed the firm to be in breach of the cross license agreement back in March.
A joint statement by the firms reads: "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 agreement means both AMD and Intel will get patent rights from a newly-drawn-up five-year cross-license agreement, while both parties agree to drop any more claims of breach from the previous license agreement.
In addition, Intel has agreed to cough up $1.25 billion in payments to AMD, whilst also agreeing to abide by a set of business practice provisions meant to keep the firm on the straight and narrow from now on. In exchange for this conciliatory gesture, AMD will now drop all pending litigation against its big blue rival, not only in Delaware, but also in two pending cases in Japan.
AMD will also apparently be withdrawing its regulatory complaints worldwide, not that it helps much in the case of the EU, which already passed judgment on Intel earlier this year to the tune of $1.06 billion.
The agreement by both firms is to be made public in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.
