IDG News Service —
The European Commission amended its antitrust charges against Intel that were filed a year ago to include three new claims. While that news was expected, word that Hector Ruiz has been replaced as head of Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices was not. That news broke on Thursday, which was a hopping-busy day for IT headlines, including the arraignment of a San Francisco IT administrator who authorities say is holding the city's network hostage by allegedly refusing to hand over passwords.
1. EU levels new antitrust charges against Intel: The European Commission sent a new set of antitrust charges to Intel as it seeks to bolster charges initially filed last July that involve claims Intel has practiced anticompetitive business practices to hurt rival Advanced Micro Devices. The Commission, which is Europe's top regulator, said that Intel paid big rebates to a European PC retailer on the condition that the retailer sell only Intel-based PCs and that Intel also paid a leading original equipment manufacturer to put off a launch of products with rival Advanced Micro Devices' CPUs. The third new charge is that Intel paid rebates to that OEM on the condition that it would get all of its laptop CPUs from Intel. Intel responded that the new charges are just the same claims AMD has been making for years and that Intel has always conducted business lawfully. The company is "confident that the worldwide microprocessor market is functioning normally and is highly competitive," it said.
2. AMD appoints new CEO as losses continue and Change in leadership could revitalize AMD, analysts say: Dirk Meyer replaced Hector Ruiz as CEO of financially struggling Advanced Micro Devices. Ruiz will continue as executive chairman of the company and chairman of the AMD board of directors, the company said as it reported its seventh-consecutive quarter of financial losses. The company, which must contend with Intel as a rival, also is divesting its handheld and digital TV businesses. The personnel move could be just what AMD needs to get it back on track, analysts say.
3. IT administrator pleads not guilty to network tampering: Terry Childs, the 43-year-old San Francisco city IT administrator accused of holding the city's Fibre WAN hostage, pleaded not guilty to charges of computer tampering during his arraignment Thursday. Childs is accused of setting up an unauthorized access system, resetting administrative passwords to city network's switches and routers, and then refusing to hand over the passwords. Other administrators at the city's Department of Telecommunication Information Services have struggled to regain administrative control of the network. Childs is being held on US$5 million bail, an unusually high amount for such a case. His next scheduled court appearance is a July 23 bail hearing.
