FTC to Join Battle Against Intel?

On the heels of New York's antitrust charges against Intel, it is expected that the Federal Trade Commission will join the fray against the chip maker, according to Computerworld. Dan Olds, principal analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, says:

It wouldn't surprise me to see the FTC jump into the fight with an antitrust action of their own against Intel, if only so that they don't look like they're being lazy in the face of actions from the European Union and now New York.

According to John Balto, a former policy director at the FTC, charges by the FTC:

would be much more significant than those brought by AMD and the New York Attorney General ... The FTC case will be a case about the future. It will be focusing on dynamic competition, the impact on innovation, on how Intel's conduct ... is going to harm competition and consumers in the future, stifling the ability of new rivals to emerge...

Industry analysts say antitrust action by the FTC could happen before the end of the year.