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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pompsander who wrote (44710)	6/16/2000 5:25:00 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Rambus Skyrockets After Toshiba Deal Prompts Upgrade By Jennifer Barrett TheStreet.com/NYTimes.com Staff Reporter 6/16/00 4:51 PM ET Shares of Rambus (RMBS:NASDAQ - news) skyrocketed Friday after the stock, which had split 4-for-1 a day earlier, was upgraded by a major brokerage firm following news the Mountain View, Calif.-based company had signed a new patent license agreement with computer giant Toshiba. Shares of Rambus ended up 26 5/16, or 47%, at 82 3/4 after Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Mark Edelstone upgraded the stock rating from outperform to strong buy. That reverses his decision last September to downgrade the stock to outperform when it fell to a 52-week low of $14.625. Under the license agreement announced Thursday, Toshiba will pay Rambus licensing and royalty fees for use of the high-speed memory interfaces invented and patented by Rambus. The Japanese computer maker has been developing, manufacturing and selling Rambus-compatible products since 1990. Toshiba joins more than 30 semiconductor companies that have already licensed Rambus' high-speed, chip-connecting interface technology. Analysts say Toshiba's decision could prompt other Japanese companies to enter into similar deals with Rambus. In a statement released Thursday, Yasuo Morimoto, president and chief executive officer of Toshiba's semiconductor unit, said the agreement ensures that Toshiba has rights to these "important Rambus patents which are necessary to continue providing our customers with their choice of memory and logic products." Rambus develops and licenses high-bandwidth chip connection technologies and licenses semiconductor companies like Toshiba to manufacture and sell memory and logic computer products that incorporate Rambus technology. The company has nearly 100 U.S.-issued and foreign patents. Rambus-based systems are used in Dell (DELL:Nasdadq - news), Compaq (CPQ:NYSE - news) , Hewlett-Packard (HWP:NYSE - news) and IBM (IBM:NYSE - news) personal computers and workstations. "We believe our Rambus memory interface is the best solution for the majority of the market." said Geoff Tate, Rambus chief executive officer. "Our objective is to produce innovations that will benefit the semiconductor and systems industries, and by licensing these innovations, to generate a return on our investment to our shareholders." Despite its strong gains Friday, the company's split-adjusted stock price still falls far short of its 52-week high of 117 3/4, reached March 14. The stock plunged 72% over the next month, bottoming out at an intraday price of 33 1/4 in mid-April. After Rambus' stock split and patent license agreement announcement, Morgan Stanley, a major institutional holder of Rambus shares, reported that it would maintain its post-split target price of $125 over the next year and a half. It also maintained its forecast for earnings per share of 15 cents for fiscal year 2000 and 32 cents for fiscal year 2001.