Escalating the world's largest computer chip maker's legal woes, the
Federal Trade Commission has opened a formal probe into Intel Corp.'s
sales tactics.
The move is a victory for its much smaller rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Intel
disclosed Friday that it has received a subpoena from the FTC for
records about Intel's microprocessor sales, which dominate the world
market with a roughly 80 percent share.
The FTC's two-year
investigation had been considered "informal" until that point, and
Intel, which is already fighting antitrust charges in the European
Union and was fined this week by antitrust regulators in South Korea,
said it had been cooperating.