It took a mediator to get Intel and AMD to arrive at the magic number - and who would pay it - that would cause them to settle their litigation out-of-court last week, according to BusinessWeek.
AMD wanted to be paid for its antitrust claims. Intel wanted to be paid to let AMD's joint venture make x86 chips. Months of negotiation had been futile.
Intel's former CFO, now chief administrative officer Andy Bryant, who was recruited in September to fill in for general counsel Bruce Sewell - who disappeared in the middle of things first to go on sabbatical then to become Apple's general counsel - reportedly persuaded the negotiators to bring in a mediator.
They used Anthony Piazza, a partner in the San Francisco law firm of Gregorio, Haldeman & Piazza, who helped the companies through another squabble back 15 years ago. They met at a hotel in Maui and emerged with a deal after two days of round-the-clock negotiations.
Intel, by the way, has just replaced Sewell with Doug Melamed, an ex-Justice Department lawyer who figured in the case against Microsoft and was way up in the Antitrust Division's line of command during the Clinton administration, eventually running it after Joel Klein left.
Until a few days ago he was a partner at WilmerHale and according to the bio on its site is exactly what Intel needs. Check this out. Aside from antitrust, his specialties are IP, distribution, pricing and other competitive strategies, joint ventures, mergers and other transactions.