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

To: Dan3 who wrote (67805)	3/15/2001 4:46:19 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Rambus Shares Fall After Web Site's Report on Trial (Update2) By John Stebbins 03/15 15:06 Los Altos, California, March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Rambus Inc. shares fell as much as 31 percent after a computer-news Web site, citing unnamed industry sources, said a U.S. judge had limited the memory-chip maker's patent-infringement lawsuit against Germany's Infineon Technologies. Rambus, based in Los Altos, California, fell $10.25 to $25.10 in late trading after dropping as low as $24.49. The shares have fallen about 76 percent from a year ago. Infineon's American depositary receipts, each representing one ordinary share, rose 10 cents to $35.65. The Web site, ElectronicNews Online, published by Reed Elsevier Inc.'s Cahners Business Information division, reported that U.S. District Judge Robert Payne, in the Eastern District of Virginia, issued his ruling yesterday in Richmond. Cahners earlier today corrected its article to say ``no written ruling has been issued.'' ``It was a relative minor error that came at an unfortunate time,'' said Tom Moran, ElectronicNews executive editor. ``We have corrected it. We stand by the rest of the story.'' Rambus Chief Financial Officer Gary Harmon said an official ruling hadn't been made, although one might come out today. Infineon attorney Robert Tyler, of the Richmond, Virginia, law firm McGuireWoods LLP, agreed. Investor Comment ``It's one of those stocks that has a cult following, and it's been somewhat controversial,'' said Mike Green, managing partner at Benham & Green Capital Management LLC, in La Jolla, California. The firm owns about 200,000 Rambus shares. Infineon, a Munich-based unit of Siemens AG, makes memory chips as well as semiconductors for communications equipment and cars. Rambus designs memory chips and gets most of its revenue by charging royalties and license fees on more than 100 patents to companies. The designs accelerate information among chips. Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker, is backing the company to try to sell faster microprocessors such as the Pentium 4. Rambus filed the Infineon lawsuit and others to recoup payments it says are owed for use of the company's patented memory- chip designs. A Rambus victory may force memory-chip makers to pay as much as $1 billion a year in fees to the company, a huge increase for a business that had sales of $72.3 million last year. A loss may stunt Rambus's ability to grow, some analysts say. Harmon called the Cahner's article ``alarmist.'' Even if the judge does limit the trial's scope, the article ``makes it seem that it would be all over, and that is far from the truth,'' he said. Article Corrected The original Cahner's article also said that a ``summary judgment that would end the trial and throw out Rambus royalty claims could be made as soon as'' this morning. The updated article didn't contain that paragraph. Steven Fyffe, an associate editor at ElectronicNews who wrote the story, said he spoke with sources yesterday who said the judge had issued a ruling. ``The sources I talked to are highly-placed in the industry and have proved correct in the past,'' Fyffe said. Benham's Green said his firm keeps ``close watch'' on developments regarding Rambus. ``We take nothing for granted.'' Eight chip companies already have signed licensing agreements rather than fight Rambus: Samsung Electronics Co., the world's No. 1 memory-chip maker; Mitsubishi Electric Corp.; NEC Corp.; Hitachi Ltd.; Oki Electric Industry Co.; Toshiba Corp.; Elpida Memory Inc.; and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. These companies account for more than 45 percent of the worldwide memory-chip market, Rambus has said. The company also claims patent violations in lawsuits against memory-chip makers Micron Technology Inc. and Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. in a sever