Email Reveals Nvidia and ATI Colluded to Inflate Prices

[werty316]

The phrase sleeping with the enemy comes to mind...

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/2573/nvidiaamdpsstfv0.jpg

Nvidia and AMD have been accused of price fixing in the GPU market. The class action suit alleges that Nvidia and AMD colluded to keep prices artificially high, by releasing products at the same time and at similar prices.

Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California read aloud an email which plaintiffs’ attorneys say contained evidence of a conspiracy to fix prices. Out of 9 million documents turned over in discovery, of particular interest was a 2002 email from Nvidia senior vice president of marketing, Dan Vivoli, to ATI’s president and chief operating officer, Dave Orton.

Vivoli wrote, in part, “I really think we should work harder together on the marketing front. As you and I have talked about, even though we are competitors, we have the common goal of making our category a well positioned, respected playing field. $5 and $8 stocks are a result of no respect.”

Judge Alsup considered the email strong evidence in the price fixing case, stating, “That’s not good for the defense. A jury would like to see this.”

Alsup indicated that he would take the class certification issue under submission (http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202422773207) at the close of arguments.


Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/17/damning-email-revealed-in-class-action-suit-against-nvidia-and-amd/

[PP Mguire]

Lol i wouldnt doubt this at all. But 2002? Thats far back.

[werty316]

Thats the shocking part, that this could have been going on this whole time since that email from 2002 :jawdrop:

[Raptorfury]

well if they goin after ati and nvidia then they should go after intel for the same thing . bc lets fact it the video card has more caponents then a cpu does . but yet a cpu costs the same or more then a video card ..

[typh4u]

I knew paying $400 dollars for my ti-4600 back in 2002 was way to much. Especially when I put it in my dell 8100

[PP Mguire]

Lol wow. I used to have a ti-4400 but it was free :)

[bobletman]

Hmmm if this happened in 2002 then why where nvidia cards always priced a lot higher then the ATI cards.

[Scott]

And if the cards did not match each other prices then their is not fixing going on.

I could see them talking about that a min for a highend card should be like 499.00 midrange 200.00 and lowend 99.00. I do not know if you could call that price fixing.

[Scott]

And if this thing goes to a jury and they lose, guess who is going out of busniess. NVIDIA has spare cash, AMD is out of cash and can not last much longer if they do not start making a profit. If they had to pay a big settlement it is all over with.

[jellyrole]

That would suck..couldn't that mean slower production of faster cards from NVIDIA since they wouldn't have anyone to compete with?

[bobletman]

And if this thing goes to a jury and they lose, guess who is going out of busniess. NVIDIA has spare cash, AMD is out of cash and can not last much longer if they do not start making a profit. If they had to pay a big settlement it is all over with.

Ya but the thing is, Amd cant go out of business because then Nvidia would have a monopoly and since that is not allowed AMD would be forced to stay in the game somehow.

[srpeters18]

Anti-Trust laws will NOT keep AMD from going out of business. All they can do is keep Nvidia from buying AMD and creating a monopoly. If AMD goes out of business through no fault of Nvidia, there's nothing the government can do about it. Besides that, anti-trust laws only apply to companies headquartered within the US...

[huynhc]

Besides that, anti-trust laws only apply to companies headquartered within the US...

aren't both ATI/AMD and nVidia both HQd in the US. I thought so...I could be wrong though.

[srpeters18]

They are. But in the face of a great big lawsuit, it wouldn't be hard to move HQ's to a different country where they already have large offices.

But that doesn't really matter, because like I said before. Nvidia can't be punished for AMD making poor decisions or even just plain not doing well and going out of business. And the government doesn't have the power just to tell AMD not to.

[Raptorfury]

amd isnt exactly poor . there far from it .... not exactly as good as nvidia but they are climbing up there ... even if amd were to be in trouble i am pretty sure companies like ibm , sony , panasonic microsoft would pick em up in a heart beat ... bc of the new releases of ATi cards Nvidia starting to feel the pinch them selves now . now if lets say Amd was goin to go under they would more then likly sell off Ati itself . and lets say Intel picked up the bill ????? then what , Nvidia Wouldnt even STAND a chance ....... i know i am in with a bunch of nvidia fans , lets face it everyone has their moments everyone ......

[PP Mguire]

Intel cant even get their own thing right and from what it seems like they wont be supporting DirectX or OpenGL. They are shooting theirself in the foot that way. So if they bought out ATI they would still be on their own with alot more money. If ATI starts pushing good cards Nvidia would just put out better ones.

[Raptorfury]

what the 4870's a bad card ? last i look there doin pretty good . and also they managed to put a big dent into nvidias plans .... i been watching the prices of video cards these last few days and noticed not only nvidia has drop the price of there over priced 280gtx down but ati is slowly doin the same as well . i also started thinking bout the first post and wondered if these cards are infact coming down so darn fast how can anyone make it stick bout price fixing ???

[srpeters18]

now if lets say Amd was goin to go under they would more then likly sell off Ati itself . and lets say Intel picked up the bill ?????

Actually, Intel aquiring AMD would be a violation of anti-trust laws.

[typh4u]

I think he was referring Intel Purchasing ATI if AMD sold off that portion of the company...

[PP Mguire]

what the 4870's a bad card ? last i look there doin pretty good . and also they managed to put a big dent into nvidias plans .... i been watching the prices of video cards these last few days and noticed not only nvidia has drop the price of there over priced 280gtx down but ati is slowly doin the same as well . i also started thinking bout the first post and wondered if these cards are infact coming down so darn fast how can anyone make it stick bout price fixing ???Read what i had to say. I was saying IF Intel purchased ATI and then they started pushing out good cards Nvidia still wouldnt have to worry. Its pretty obvious they are holding back and just making cash.

[srpeters18]

I think he was referring Intel Purchasing ATI if AMD sold off that portion of the company...

Aah, well that probably wouldn't raise any red flags as far as anti-trust laws go. But if I were AMD I'd rather declare Chapter 11 and restructure than have to sell off what is probably the more profitable half of the company to my only direct competition.

[Sadasius]

Here is the actual court filing... http://madmikemagee.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/nvid.pdf