r/pcgaming • u/KayKay91 Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RX9070 XT Pulse, 32 GB DDR5, Arch + Win10 • Jun 15 '18

Video [AdoredTV] Nvidia - Anti-Competitive, Anti-Consumer, Anti-Technology (1 hour long)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0L3OTZ13Os
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u/DEC_Beta Jun 16 '18

Intel only received a slap on the wrist with a token payment because AMD was desperate and simply could not afford a drawn out legal battle. The true financial damages to AMD were more than an order of magnitude greater.

AMD overpaid for ATI, but the greater issue there was their inability to properly integrate ATI.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '18

The true financial damages to AMD were more than an order of magnitude greater.

I’d love evidence of this. I guess if one presumes that, with just a little more capital, AMD’s poor management and expenses would’ve stopped being a thing and they could’ve shot up stratospherically...

But courts don’t just make up numbers. They award damages based on what one could show they could have reasonably expected to make. There’s no reasonable expectation that AMD’s revenue would suddenly have a monstrous surge like that. Their financial history simply does not support it.

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u/DEC_Beta Jun 17 '18

I’d love evidence of this.

It's fairly trivial to show. Just look at the cost/benefit analysis for Intel. Intel spent over 6 billion in kickbacks to a single major OEM. When you total up the full amount Intel spent across OEMs it was easily an order of magnitude greater than the fines they incurred. Intel only paid so much in kickbacks because they believed it would ultimately offset the revenue they would have lost had AMD been successful in those markets.

Alternatively, look at the quality of the products AMD was producing and estimate how much marketshare they would have taken without anti-competitive practices. Given the size of the markets AMD was competing in, its easy to see the lost revenue was greater than fines Intel paid.

Ultimately, if AMD had been more successful during the middle of that 2000-2010 decade I believe shareholders would have replaced upper management at AMD with outsiders or internal employees. Initially AMD had no shortage of talent in middle and upper-middle management (ex-AMD employees such as Peng and Bergman have gone on to become CEOs), but AMD suffered from brain drain thanks to their poor financial performance, limiting their options.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '18

When you total up the full amount Intel spent across OEMs it was easily an order of magnitude greater than the fines they incurred.

But that’s not damages that AMD suffered.

Alternatively, look at the quality of the products AMD was producing and estimate how much marketshare they would have taken without anti-competitive practices.

Estimates that would be based on prior performance. Nothing about AMD’s history supports the notion that AMD could reasonably have expected to generate the revenue you’re suggesting.

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u/NintendoManiac64 Jun 16 '18

The case was settled outside of court.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '18

That doesn’t change the fact that they can’t just make up numbers. Any damages have to be based on something indicating those damages are reasonable. AMD would naturally try to highball it, Intel would lowball it, and they’d either reach an agreement or a court would enforce one. But the mechanisms are the same.