were?
were in a monopolistic environment? still are as far as I can tell. AMD should of been paid 5-10x what Intel paid them. Intel wrote that payment off in one quarter, YEARS of damage written off in one quarter. That is not a deterrent to not do those things again, it's an encouragement.
As for stacking 4 socket systems in 1U systems this has been available for some time now from some vendors - supermicro for example - http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/system/1U/1041/AS-1041M-T2.cfm
Or go with quad socket blades for better power efficiency. For me, the premium paid for quad socket is not worth the cost, would rather have two dual socket.