WASHINGTON -- Just 24 hours before the antitrust case was scheduled to begin, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Intel have called the whole thing off.
Negotiators for both sides over the weekend inked a tentative settlement agreement, which must be approved by a majority of the FTC's five commissioners. The outcome is the result of weeks of negotiation, Intel said.
In a terse one-paragraph request, both sets of attorneys on Monday asked the administrative law judge to withdraw the case "from adjudication for the purpose of considering an executed proposed consent agreement."
"We view this compromise agreement as a win-win for both parties and we are satisfied that the agreement gives us value for our intellectual property rights. This is acceptable to both parties and was the result of constructive dialogue between Intel and the FTC," Craig Barrett, president and chief executive officer of Intel, said in a statement.
The proposed settlement would "resolve the allegations contained in the commission's complaint," William J. Baer, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. Baer also said there were "remaining issues under investigation."
The FTC, in a lawsuit filed last June, charged that Intel had abused its alleged monopoly power in the chip industry to harm competitors. Intel denied the accusation.
Intel declined to offer details of the agreement. "We're happy with the result," said spokesman Chuck Mulloy.
When a proposed settlement is submitted to the administrative law judge who would be presiding over the case, all proceedings grind to a halt until the commissioners review the proposal.
FTC attorneys plan to submit the proposal to the commissioners this week.
Intel declined to comment, but the company may have tried to head off the same kind of debilitating experience Microsoft Corp. has suffered in its antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice.
Negotiators from Microsoft, the Justice Department, and the state attorneys general met in closed-door sessions the weekend before the lawsuit was filed last May, but could not reach an agreement.
The Justice Department and the FTC share antitrust enforcement authority. The FTC last year voted 4-1 to proceed with the case against Intel.
