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

To: Dave B who wrote (48273)	7/29/2000 7:01:16 PM
From: gnuman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Dave B. re: <Hitachi clearly decided not to pursue this line; why do you think the others will?> IMO there's a lot more at stake for the major memory chip makers. As for Hitachi, they only have exposure on SDRAM's through the end of the year when NEC takes over production. From what I've read, OKI is out of the commodity DRAM biz, and of course Toshiba makes the RDRAM's for SONY and are covered under an RDRAM Agreement. There doesn't seem to be a lot of pain for these guy's, and no one knows if there were any special term's and/or incentives to settle since the contracts are kept secret. If the Rambus IP is truly valid, I can only conclude it was a mistake for them to get involved in the standards setting process with JEDEC. Getting involved with the creation of open industry standards while theoretically owning the patents to those standards doesn't make sense to me. It may have been a strategic mistake, but it seem's to have opened the door for the big players. Considering what's at stake, I expect them to mount a defense. The Hitachi filings are very interesting, and indicate a potential antitrust action through the FTC. On the other hand, companies could just wait to be sued, relegating the decision to years of litigation in the courts. (While the initial action may be through the ITC, I doubt if there would be any temporary injunctive relief). However, if either Micron, NEC or Samsung capitulates, Rambus wins. Somehow, I don't think this will end soon. Would be nice if it did, though. JMHO's OT, notice the thread is starting to sound like YAHOO?