The Missing Emails? Damn. You Know, I Think We Might Have Backed Them up in the Landfill …

So the emails Intel failed to preserve following the filing of Advanced Micro Devices’ antitrust lawsuit against the company? Not a big deal — according to Intel. In court documents filed this week, Intel said that though it hadn’t yet recovered the messages it destroyed, its own internal investigation had concluded that “nothing of any genuine significance” was lost. Furthermore, though Intel acknowledged that the missing emails — some from Intel chief executive Paul Otellini and chairman Craig Barrett — should have been saved, it found no evidence that the loss was deliberate. Rather, it was the result of “human error in attempting a challenging task — in retrospect a task of such magnitude that it probably never could have been accomplished without some lapses.” Apparently, Outlook AutoArchive is a lot harder to use than you might think.

Anyway … I’m sure AMD’s attorneys will rest easier now knowing that, in Intel’s estimation, the missing emails they thought might have been detrimental to the chipmaker’s defense are really immaterial. Indeed, they might reach the same conclusion themselves, if Intel ever manages to cobble them back together from backup tapes, email forwards and the like.