Intel may not be off the regulatory hook after all. At least, not yet.
The chip industry's leader did settle some antitrust charges with the Federal Trade Commission on Sunday, but the agency is reportedly continuing to pursue a much wider investigation of Intel's ways.
According to The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, sources said a "broader investigation is alive and active."
That fits with what the FTC itself said when announcing the agreement with Intel (INTC) earlier this week -- that there were "remaining issues under investigation."
Still, it was widely assumed that those issues might be quickly dropped. Not so, The Journal said.
The paper reports that the FTC is pressing ahead on these issues: whether Intel used its dominance in the chip market to get into ancillary markets; how the company controls "key technical standards"; and whether it punishes PC makers that don't use Intel chips.
The Journal emphasized that it is far from certain that the FTC probe will result in new charges against Intel, particularly since the company appears to have softened its ways since coming under closer scrutiny.
The FTC and Intel earlier this week agreed to settle charges that Intel forced three companies to turn over valuable technology patents that could otherwise have boosted competition in the markets for chips or related parts of personal computers.
