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

To: pompsander who wrote (87488)	12/30/2003 7:39:56 PM
From: Barry Grossman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

No mention of Rambus in this story but I like this part. oaklandtribune.com Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 2:53:55 AM PST Micron may make deal Agreement would grant admission of price fixing in exchange for amnesty By Ian King, Bloomberg News Micron Technology Inc., as part of an agreement to win amnesty from prosecution by the Justice Department, may admit it conspired with competitors to manipulate computer-chip prices, people familiar with the probe said. Micron, the world's No.2 maker of memory chips, is in talks to provide information to bolster a possible U.S. case against three other companies in the $16 billion market for dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips, the people said. The U.S. is probing whether Micron conspired with Infineon Technologies AG, Samsung Electronics Co. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. Cooperating with the agency may allow Micron executives to avoid prosecution. The department has won jail terms and fines in price-fixing cases against companies including Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and Grey Global Group Inc. "It would be nice to get something like this resolved because it's the sort of thing that distracts management," said Marc Klee, who manages the $500 million John Hancock Technology Fund including shares of Boise, Idaho-based Micron. Dave Parker, a spokesman for Micron, and Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona declined to comment. Phone messages left after business hours for Infineon spokespeople Guenter Gaugler and Monika Sonntag in Munich, Samsung spokesman James Chung in Seoul and Hynix spokesman Bang Min Ho weren't returned. Micron has declined to participate in a joint defense with the other companies and instead is negotiating amnesty with the department, the people familiar with the talks said. Alfred P. Censullo, a former Micron sales manager, last month agreed to plead guilty to obstructing justice in the price-fixing investigation. He will admit he altered handwritten notes about chip prices after a grand jury in June 2002 subpoenaed documents from the companies. Obstruction of justice carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, the department said. The Justice Department typically tries to prove a price-fixing case with help from a company that participated in the effort, former Justice prosecutor Steven M. Kowal said. "What they demand is total cooperation" from the informants, said Kowal, a partner at Chicago's Bell, Boyd & Lloyd LLC and chair of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section Committee on Criminal Practice and Procedure. The department is investigating whether the four chipmakers, which account for two thirds of industry sales, tried to manipulate prices in the spot market for chips. About 80 percent of memory chips are sold in contracts with computer manufacturers such as Dell Inc. and the remainder is traded on spot markets in Asia and the U.S. The spot prices form the basis for contract terms and are used by investors and analysts to gauge global supply and demand. Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, is the world's largest maker of DRAM chips and controlled about 32 percent of the market last year, according to Gartner Inc. Micron, which started production in 1982 and had $3.09 billion in revenue last year, is the No.2 maker, with an 18 percent market share.