AMD wins anti-shred request in Intel case
Third-party documents preserved as evidence.
By Paul Kallender, IDG News Service | Published: 10:36, 04 July 2005
A Delaware court has agreed to an AMD request for documents to be preserved in its anti-trust suit against Intel.
AMD asked the court on Friday to serve subpoenas for the preservation of documents in the possession of specified third parties so they may be used as evidence in the litigation. The court granted the request shortly after.
AMD sent notices to 32 computer companies, microprocessor distributors and computer retailers requesting that they suspend their normal document destruction and take steps to present evidence from being lost, according to an AMD filing with the court.
Of these, 14 companies have responded and nine of those indicated they would work with AMD to preserve documents, AMD said. The nine companies were Acer, Gateway, Lenovo, NEC, Rackable Systems, Sony and Sun. The others are distributor Tech Data and the retailer Circuit City Stores.
Best Buy Co. has agreed to comply with AMD's request "without limitation", while Dell and Hitachi acknowledged AMD's letters of request and promised to respond. CompUSA has acknowledged AMD's request.
Toshiba is the only company to have acknowledged receipt of AMD's notice and "refused to negotiate at all," according to the filing. Toshiba declined to comment.
So far, 18 companies have not responded, according to the filing, ranging from HP and IBM to Dixons. "In the light of the court order, AMD is confident that the companies it has contacted will appropriately preserve the relevant documents," said an AMD spokeswoman.
The announcement comes after AMD filed a broad anti-trust suit against Intel last week, accusing Intel of using discriminatory financial payments and threats to stifle competition and maintain its dominance in the microprocessor market.
The 48-page complaint alleged that Intel used illegal subsidies to win sales, and in some cases threatened companies for using or selling AMD products. AMD identified 38 companies on three continents that it claimed were coerced by Intel.
Later in the week, AMD's Japanese subsidiary filed claims against the chip giant's Japanese subsidiary, seeking $50 million and millions of dollars in damages for what AMD called "various anticompetitive acts" by Intel.
