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

To: Estephen who wrote (44976)	6/19/2000 8:55:00 AM
From: Pat Hughes	Respond to of 93625

quote.bloomberg.com NEC, Others Likely to Follow Toshiba on Rambus, Analysts Say By Minoru Matsutani Tokyo, June 19 (Bloomberg) -- NEC Corp., Japan's biggest chipmaker, and Hitachi Ltd. will probably follow Toshiba Corp.'s decision to pay royalties to Rambus Inc. for use of memory chip technology, analysts said. Some manufacturers have balked at making Rambus-based products, saying they're difficult and expensive to make. Others have pushed alternatives to keep from having to pay royalties, though Rambus says its patents cover the alternatives. The Toshiba decision to recognize the patents could force others to pay. Toshiba, Japan's second-largest chipmaker, signed an agreement with Mountain View, California-based Rambus on Friday, covering use of Rambus' technology in high-speed dynamic random access memories, the most commonly used memories for computers. ``NEC should enter the same contract (as Toshiba) because it's difficult to produce memories for fast computers without Rambus technology,'' Yoshihide Ohtake, an analyst at Tsubasa Research Institute Ltd. Hitachi, Japan's third-largest chipmaker, would follow NEC, because the two companies have a joint venture to develop DRAMs, he said. Earlier this year, Rambus sued Hitachi for violating the same patents that Toshiba has agreed to recognize. Samsung, Fujitsu Rambus' computer-memory technology helps speed personal computers and other devices by taking full advantage of faster processors from chipmakers like Intel Corp. NEC spokesman Aston Bridgman declined to comment on whether NEC would follow Toshiba's lead. ``We are watching what's happening between Rambus and Hitachi very closely because NEC is involved with both companies,'' Bridgeman said. Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's largest computer memory chipmaker and the largest producer of Rambus technology- based chips, said it's already paying royalties. ``Rambus has worked closely with us in designing our chips,'' said company spokeswoman Cho Sung In. Japanese chipmakers lost money on DRAMs last year as rivals, such as Korea's Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology Inc. of the U.S., lowered prices. To compete, NEC and Hitachi said they would jointly develop DRAMs. Other Japanese chipmakers cut the portion of DRAM output in their overall chip production. Fujitsu may be the last Japanese chipmaker to agree to pay the royalties, Ohtake said, because it's scaling down its DRAM business. Eventually, however, ``all the DRAM makers will end up having to pay royalties to Rambus,'' said Steve Myers, an analyst at Jardine Fleming Securities Japan Ltd. ``I think those who settle earlier will pay somewhat lower royalties than those who settle later.'' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: Estephen who wrote (44976)	6/20/2000 4:31:00 AM
From: Bilow	Respond to of 93625

Hi all; Re the Rambus quote: "We have no interest in cross-licensing, because we have no interest in the patents of others," said Avo Kanadjian, vice president of marketing for Rambus. This is a very significant statement. Human life on this planet is a social concern, with everybody dependent on everybody else. The above statement by Rambus is an indication of how silly the IP laws have become. Cross licensing was the only thing that was preventing the electronics industry from dissolving into a Hobbesian free for all, and now Rambus has broken that barrier. Rambus doesn't care. It should be fun to watch how the rest of the world responds. We could see a trade war based on patents over this. So far, they are ignoring the Toshiba deal. When more news hits the foreign press, I will post it. I predict that the patent laws are going to get rewritten pretty much from top to bottom, and this is the first shot. What Rambus is doing is an exaggeration of what TI did about 10 years ago, but TI had to make reasonable cross licensing deals because they remained a manufacturer, and were subject to cross licensing blackmail. -- Carl