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

To: Don Green who wrote (59960)	11/2/2000 3:01:53 PM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

Elpidia Becomes Sixth Memory Maker To License Rambus Patents Electronic News Nov 02, 2000 --- Rambus has done it again. Hot on the heals of getting Korean DRAM giant Samsung to sign patent license agreements for SDRAM and Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM, today Elpida Memory Inc., the recently formed Hitachi Ltd.-NEC Corp. memory joint venture, did the same. Under the agreement, Elpida can sell SDRAM and DDR SDRAM directly to its systems customers. This, according to Rambus, will ensure a seamless transition of DRAM sales from the NEC and Hitachi brands over to the Elpida brand. Meanwhile, NEC and Hitachi, the parent companies, both retain their previously announced licenses with Rambus for both SDRAM and DDR SDRAM memory and controllers that directly connect to them. As is typical with Rambus licenses in these fields, the royalty rates for DDR SDRAM will be greater than the RDRAM compatible rates. The agreement also includes royalties for SDRAM as well as a license fee for the entire agreement. Established in December 1999, Elpida was Hitachi and NEC’s groundbreaking answer to each parent company’s declining market share in the memory market. Formed to combine each company’s DRAM products and design skills with economies of scale, Elpida will enter the DRAM market in January 2001 with 11.5 percent market share, and will grow to more than 20 percent market share by 2003. The news today ends speculation about how Elpida would deal with the potentially controversial issue of handling the licensing issues. Rambus’ claim to hold patents on SDRAM and Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM is disputed by three major memory makers—Infineon, Hyundai and Micron—and Rambus is locked in a three-front legal war with them over the issue. Elpida’s parents, however, have signed. NEC has long opted for an easy life with Rambus and historically acquiesced to the IP house’s demands. In June, Hitachi opted to pay royalties on SDRAM ands DDR, opting to settle rather than fight, after Rambus sued in January. So today’s announcement sees the JV following its parents. This morning, Rambus stock was trading at $50.38 this morning, up 5.4 percent following on yesterday’s 8 percent rise, wiping out the 16 percent loss delivered Monday on hysteria about Intel’s plans to abandon Rambus memory for most of its Pentium 4-based systems