BRIEF-U.S. FTC sues Intel for anticompetitive conduct

Dec 16 (Reuters) - Intel Corp (INTC.O):

* The Federal Trade Commission today sued Intel, the world's leading computer chip maker, charging that the company has illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.

* The FTC alleges that Intel has waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals' competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace. In the process, Intel deprived consumers of choice and innovation in the microchips that comprise the computers' central processing unit, or CPU. These chips are critical components that often are referred to as the "brains" of a computer.

* According to the FTC complaint, Intel's anti-competitive tactics were designed to put the brakes on superior competitive products that threatened its monopoly in the CPU microchip market. Over the last decade, this strategy has succeeded in maintaining the Intel monopoly at the expense of consumers, who have been denied access to potentially superior, non-Intel CPU chips and lower prices, the complaint states. (Washington newsroom; 202-898-8310)