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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Voltaire who wrote (1012)	9/13/2000 4:34:39 PM
From: Dealer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

RMBS--Wednesday September 13, 4:31 pm Eastern Time Rambus shares rally on NEC licensing agreement PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept 13 (Reuters) - Shares of Rambus Inc. (NasdaqNM:RMBS - news) rallied on Wednesday after NEC Corp., the world's No. 2 chipmaker, said it had signed a new chip licensing agreement with the developer of technology to speed the performance of memory chips. Rambus stock soared $7-21/32, or nearly 10 pct, to $84-15/32 in trading on Nasdaq. The shares have more than quadrupled this year, though the stock -- among the more volatile on the Nasdaq Composite -- is well off its year-high of $127. Financial terms of the pact were not disclosed. Santa Clara, Calif-based Rambus holds more than 100 U.S. and foreign patents which it has licensed to over 30 semiconductor companies. Similar patent agreements were signed in June by NEC's rivals, Toshiba Corp and Hitachi Ltd . But Rambus has been legal snags lately, when it was hit last month by two lawsuits filed by U.S.-based memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc (NYSE:MU - news) and Korea-based Hyundai Electronics Industries Co Ltd , alleging Rambus violated antitrust laws and rejecting Rambus's claims they owed it patent royalties. On Monday, Rambus -- fast on its way to becoming the world's most profitable computer chip franchise -- filed a counter-lawsuit in Germany and France against the two chipmakers. Rambus said it holds a European patent for technology used in Micron's synchronous dynamic random access memory chips, or SDRAMs, and DDR SDRAM (Double Data Rate) memory devices, and that it is seeking injunctions to halt the sale, manufacture and use of those devices. Rambus also filed suit in France and Germany against Hyundai Electronics under similar circumstances. Nonetheless, Rambus -- which does not actually make its own memory chips -- has become a Wall Street darling since going public less than five years ago. Performance in personal computers has been hampered somewhat by memory chip performance, and Rambus's technology helps to relieve that bottleneck. The company got a huge boost after Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news), the No. 1 chipmaker, finally said it would throw its weight behind Rambus technology. Now that Intel and rival Applied Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD - news) are selling microprocessors that run at more than one gigahertz, the need for faster memory becomes all the more pressing. Analysts said NEC's move had been expected since Toshiba first broke ranks in signing a licensing agreement with Rambus, but the news would still give a boost to Rambus and may prompt other chipmakers to follow suit. Under the latest agreement, which covers SDRAMs, DDR and next-generation Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory (RDRAM), NEC will pay royalties to use Rambus's designs. The agreement expands collaboration since 1991 under which NEC develops, manufactures and markets RDRAM and Rambus ASIC Cell (RAC) memory devices. The pact also includes the joint development of next-generation Direct RDRAM, which would deliver a 33 percent frequency improvement from the current 800 MHz RDRAM in memory applications, it said in a statement.