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To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (42724)	10/15/2005 1:32:56 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69255

Rambus May Gain On Samsung Plea Chris Kraeuter, 10.13.05, 3:55 PM ET By This Author Chris Kraeuter • Apple's 'Beautiful' Inventory Problem • Unix's Slow Death Still Gives Life To IBM • Microsoft Under Fire More Headlines Most Popular Videos Apple Puts iPod In Motion Shipping Business Booms Going After Growth Biocryst Pharmaceuticals Flies Most Expensive ZIP Codes 2005 Related Quotes AAPL 54.00 + 0.26 DELL 32.93 - 0.18 GTW 2.62 + 0.05 HPQ 27.54 + 0.30 IBM 82.35 + 0.15 IFX 9.83 + 0.04 MU 12.87 - 0.24 RMBS 11.66 + 0.22 Most Popular Stories The 10 Most Expensive Homes in the U.S. Best and Worst Vending Machine Snacks Sirius' Bid For More Spectrum Appears Doubtful World's Most Expensive Restaurants Most Overpriced Places In The U.S. 2005 Samsung Electronics on Wednesday pleaded guilty in price fixing memory chips, agreeing to pay a $300 million criminal fine, the second largest in U.S. history. But the company most impacted by the latest development in this long-running grand jury investigation is Rambus. Samsung's price-fixing acknowledgment joins similar pleas from Hynix Semiconductor and Infineon Technologies (nyse: IFX - news - people ) that they colluded to set prices from 1999 through 2002 for dynamic random access memory chips, or DRAM, the world's most commonly used memory chip in computers. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the plea on Wednesday. Stemming from a multiyear grand jury investigation, the Department of Justice has levied fines of $646 million and convicted five individuals, four of whom were Infineon employees and one of whom was a Micron executive. The case is ongoing. The Department of Justice said victims of the conspiracy were Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ), Compaq, Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ), Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ), IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) and Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ). Another victim may turn out to be Rambus (nasdaq: RMBS - news - people ), which designs and licenses its memory-chip technology to chip manufacturers. Rambus has been involved in its own legal battles since 2000, mostly involving patent infringement suits and countersuits with the likes of Micron (nyse: MU - news - people ), Infineon (nyse: IFX - news - people ), Hynix and Samsung. In May of last year, Rambus opened a new legal front alleging that the biggest memory manufacturers colluded to drive Rambus out of the industry through price fixing, monopolization, unfair competition and intentional interference. The time period Rambus focused its case on is the same period that the Department of Justice built its case around. The DOJ’s investigation was triggered by price swings in 2001 and 2002. Separate from the DOJ investigation, Rambus alleges that an additional impact of these price manipulations was part of a deliberate program to keep Rambus’ products out of the memory market, thereby allowing memory chip makers to avoid paying Rambus license fees and royalties. Rambus, with only $144 million in revenue last year, could seek more than $1 billion from the same memory players that have been singled out through the Department of Justice's price-fixing investigation. Infineon has been excluded from the collusion case because of a settlement deal with Rambus reached earlier this year. Rambus general counsel John Danforth declined to comment on any other settlement talks that may or may not have taken place, but he did say that "we have long contended that price fixing was one of several tools to drive Rambus from the market, and we look forward to the opportunity to prove this in court." The case could come to court next year. Rambus stock has long been tied to its legal battles as opposed to its business battles. Its shares jumped 3.6% to $11.21 on Wednesday after the Samsung plea was announced, but a more significant boost might have been expected since Samsung is the world's largest memory producer and formerly was a major customer of Rambus'. The Los Altos, Calif.-based company will next week report financial results and begin a long-anticipated infringement case with Hynix so, with those two big unknowns, the staying power of any pop in Rambus shares could be short lived. Also, the full extent of the Samsung plea is limited to a one-page press release from the Department of Justice. The actual agreement between the attorney general and the Korean memory manufacturer likely won't be released for a few weeks. Details of the plea concerning which types of DRAM that Samsung admitted it helped fix prices would play a role in how beneficial the plea is for Rambus' collusion case.