Laptop group’s founder hits Intel

The founder of the One Laptop per Child project claimed that Intel Corp. undermined his effort to sell $100 computers for schoolchildren in the developing world even after the chip company got a seat on the nonprofit’s board.

A day after learning that Intel was abandoning his project over “philosophical” differences, the laptop group’s founder, Nicholas Negroponte, said Intel’s sales representatives had been disparaging One Laptop per Child as they pushed Intel’s sub-$300 Classmate PCs.

“I want to say we tried, but it was never a partnership,” Negroponte said. “There’s not one single thing in their contract or agreement that they lived up to.”

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy denied that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company did anything that violated its agreement with One Laptop per Child.