The FTC or Federal Trade Commission and Intel Corporation have settled on an agreement after the Federal Agency filed a lawsuit to Intel, stating that Intel is using anticompetitive practices while making business in the market of semiconductors. The agreement led to Intel no longer allowed doing certain practices which would give it certain advantages over other competitors.
These practices include forcing personal computer makers to use Intel semiconductor chips exclusively. On the other hand, Intel Corporation also stressed that they did not do improper behavior as a company in general. Aside from the exclusive use of Intel chips, the agreement also saw that Intel do not get even with their customers who use other chips.
Intel also had to change the intellectual property agreements that it had with other semiconductor companies, such as Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Nvidia Corporation. This new agreement now allows these rival companies to merge with other companies without risking patent infringement lawsuits from Intel Corp.
There will be a public evaluation period which will last for 30 days to see whether these revisions will work for the better. In terms of better competition in its initial stages, it certainly shows several signs of effectiveness, as Nvidia corp. shares rose by 1 percent while that of Intel is down by 1 percent.