Intel rubbishes EU's 'salacious' emails

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Intel has played down the importance of emails and memos released by European Union regulators, saying the documents are one-sided and don't show the whole story.

Yesterday, the EU released details from its anti-competition case against Intel, which lead to a €1 billion fine against the chip firm. The emails suggested that Intel threatened to refuse marketing funds to manufacturers if they used chips from rival AMD.

Noting that Intel is appealing the fine, its chief executive and president Paul Otellini said: "There's nothing new in yesterday's revelation of documents."

"I think they have consistently ignored information that would have painted an entire different story around those memos," he claimed, speaking to journalists today at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

While the EU's documents may make Intel look rather guilty of anti-competitive tactics, the tech firm is, for legal reasons, unable to release its own information that would change that picture, Otellini claimed.

"Governments can reveal documents like that, but we can’t because we're under protection order,” he said.

Otellini said Intel's own customers cited in the emails, particularly Dell, would describe the situation differently.

"We don’t behave in the way they weave together from those salacious emails and fully expect to be exonerated on appeal," Otellini said.

When asked if Intel has ever withheld marketing or other funds to discourage the use of rival technology, Otellini said a definitive no.

"No, we don’t do exclusive deals, we don’t do conditional deals, despite what you’ve read and what your heard and when our side of the story comes out you’ll see that," he exclaimed.

Click here for more news from Intel Developers Forum 2009.

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