Intel's President and CEO had to wake up early and issue a statement regarding the record 1.45 billion penalty set by European Commission.

European Commision announced its verdict on the case of anti-competitive practices Intel excercised in the past. It is not as high as 3.78B, but $1.45B is still a heavy chunk of cash.

It looks like the biggest challenge Intel will face in the next three years will be legal fines: Denmark issued a $0.63B fine for tax evasion, EU could set a $3.8B, and USA AT trial starts in 2010.