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Intel clarifies its position ahead of AMD vote

by Scott Bicheno on 6 February 2009, 18:33

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), AMD (NYSE:AMD)

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Uncertainty

The shareholder meeting intended to approve the splitting of AMD into two companies - a fabless semiconductor company called AMD and a manufacturing company called, provisionally, The Foundry Company (TFC) - will take place next Tuesday.

There doesn't seem to be any great reason to believe the meeting won't approve the ‘asset smart' move, but AMD saw fit to mention in the SEC filing of its last quarterly earnings that it had received a letter from Intel requesting a meeting to "discuss" whether TFC will qualify as a subsidiary of AMD and thus whether its creating is in breach of any of the agreements within the cross license agreement between AMD and Intel.

AMD has been widely reported as accusing Intel of trying to cause uncertainty ahead of the vote. So we spoke to Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy to find out what Intel's up to.

"We have no intention to prevent the foundation of The Foundry Company," insisted Mulloy. "Our concerns centre around the long-standing cross licensing agreement, which was last renewed in 2001."

Asked for specific concerns, Mulloy said: "Does the foundation of TFC violate the terms of the agreement? AMD asserts it can unilaterally transfer rights to TFC without consulting Intel."