I haven't looked to far into the INTC/RMBS investment relationship. Here are a few quotes from others regarding the relationship. I have not verified any of them.
From: anandforums.gisystech.com
"Besides the practical performance issues (possibly due to latency as mentioned; the bottom line is the benchmarks don't show much improvement), the relationship between Intel and Rambus is underplayed. Intel has warrants on 5% of Rambus stock worth about $200 million currently (more if Rambus is successful and the stock goes back up), which it gets if it successfully pushes enough Rambus-based product (see it from the horse's mouth: rambus.com. It is also under contract obligation to publicly promote Rambus (not just licensed; rather it must use it, give it positive PR, etc.). See the Register article here: theregister.co.uk (and this time the Register has a solid source: the SEC. Do a find for "Additional Intel Obligations" (it's at the bottom) in sec.gov. Basically Intel's Gelsinger has signed to use Intel's market power to make Rambus the dominant players in DRAMs. We have SEC filings to prove this link. Intel doesn't own all of Rambus, but Rambus has contractually aligned Intel's interests with its own, which has much the same effect as ownership. I wonder if using MTH's failed to satisfy the clause, "Any integrated circuit where each RD-AC is not primarily intended to communicate with Rambus DRAMs is not considered an integrated circuit that controls main memory for purposes of this Section" and this was behind the 820 + MTH recall as much as technical problems."
A separate poster from same forum:
"3. You talked about Intel's lack of ownership in Rambus, but haven't mentioned why they are SO loyal...I have done some research, and I have found (in the Rambus 10k filing with the SEC from 1998) that Intel is contractually bound to support ONLY Rambus until the end of 2002...(near the bottom of the linked page)
sec.gov
"4.9 Additional Intel Obligations.
----------------------------
(a) Intel will use its continuing best efforts in marketing, public relations, and engineering to make the Rambus-D DRAM the primary DRAM for PC main memory applications through December 31, 2002; and
(b) Intel will communicate to the top (10) DRAM manufacturers, Intel's intention to support the Rambus-D Interface Technology in its integrated circuits for low end workstation, performance desktop, and basic PC platforms."
And this from Overclockers:
overclockers.com
"We're Just Friends
"Intel's relationship with Rambus, although a very public one, is limited to one specific thing: Intel is a Rambus partner that has a license to produce Rambus memory controller devices"
I saw this and decided to see what I could find in the SEC reports. Found this in five minutes:
"In January 1997, the Company granted a warrant to Intel Corporation for the purchase of 1,000,000 shares of Rambus common stock (the "Intel warrant") at an exercise price of $10.00 per share. The warrant will become exercisable only upon the achievement of certain milestones by Intel relating to shipment volumes of Rambus-based chipsets (the "Intel milestones")."
That's limited? If RDRAM becomes the memory standard (at which point they'll certainly meet the milestones), a share price of $500-$1,000 is a quite reasonable estimate. I guess they forgot about something potentially worth a half-billion to a billion dollars. I do all the time, don't you?
Never mind that if Intel does muscle RDRAM through, if selling ten million chipsets is worth that kind of money, how much might one or two hundred million chipsets packed with RDRAM be worth in warrants issued by a grateful RAMBUS?" |
