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Technology Stocks : Semi Equipment Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (31857)	8/2/2006 11:29:21 AM
From: Donald Wennerstrom	Respond to of 95546

FTC says Rambus monopolized chip markets August 02, 2006 10:03:26 (ET) NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission ruled on Wednesday that computer technology developer Rambus Inc. (RMBS,Trade) unlawfully monopolized markets for four memory chip technologies, sending its shares down 22 percent. The ruling puts at risk the royalties that Rambus, which has no manufacturing facilities of its own, earns from the licensing of its technology to other chipmakers. Rambus "through a course of deceptive conduct" was able to distort industry standards for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and "engage in an anti-competitive 'hold-up' of the computer memory industry," the FTC said in a statement on its Web site. The remedy being sought by FTC staff would bar Rambus from enforcing any existing licensing agreements, along with certain patents. The FTC said it ordered more briefings to determine the appropriate remedy. Rambus shares tumbled $3.76 to $13.22 in active morning trade on Nasdaq. "We are disappointed that any form of liability was found on the records submitted to the FTC during and following our 2003 trial," John Danforth, senior legal adviser at Rambus, told analysts on a conference call. "We believe it highly likely (that) we will be taking an appeal from the liability that has been found." Rambus, based in Los Altos, California, believes it can continue with its licensing activity and can proceed with existing litigation, including patent suits against Micron Technology (MU,Trade) and South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor ((000660.KS)). The FTC had brought antitrust charges against Rambus in June 2002, and a trial took place in 2003. In 2004, a U.S. administrative law judge handed Rambus a victory by dismissing charges that it illegally monopolized key computer chip technologies. Later that year, the FTC staff asked the agency's five commissioners to overrule the judge's decision. For years, Rambus has been seeking royalties from some of the world's largest memory-chip makers on intellectual property that it asserts is used in standard DRAM chips. At issue is technology used for computer memory. In 1990 Rambus filed for a patent for a new memory technology called RDRAM. It subsequently became a member of an industry group called JEDEC that was trying to agree on standards for another memory technology, called SDRAM. DRAM is used mainly in computers, unlike another kind of memory known as "flash," which can retain data after power is shut off and is used in Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL,Trade) iPod and a wide range of other portable electronics. The FTC had cited a half dozen instances in the mid-1990s in which they said Rambus had secretly applied to amend its RDRAM patent to cover technologies that JEDEC was considering for SDRAM. They said Rambus executives had misled JEDEC officials when they asked if the company had patented key technologies. Rambus had maintained it never did anything to violate JEDEC's rules. (Additional reporting by Peter Kaplan in Washington)

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (31857)	8/2/2006 11:34:16 AM
From: Gottfried	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95546

Don, thank you for posting SCE stock performance for this year's bookings upcycle. Pathetic indeed. Worse is that I'm at a loss to guess what the big investors are thinking. Are they discounting the next cyclic bookings low already?

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (31857)	8/2/2006 1:21:47 PM
From: etchmeister	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95546

We will get another data point in a couple of weeks to see what the July numbers are. I believe we are getting very close to the peak - LRCX as well as NVLS stated that second half could be up slightly (besides there is question if orders are pushed out in Q4 which could mean numbers for 2006 and 2007 could change). Even with stronger second half bookings will start trending downwards - perhaps at end of Q3 - perhaps to the March 2006 level. We will probably see a "cyclical" slowdown and than off to the races again. To me a repeat of Y2K when bookings continued to increase is really not desirable IMHO because the market will perceive it as a precursor of capacity glut. Without looking at a chart NVLS seems to be firming up - used to be one of the weakest within the group but to me it looks like it is firming. memory spending should favor both LRCX as well as VSEA - and there is more talk about memory makers eventually changing over to copper which should favor NVLS. 2006 JAN 1226 FEB 1293 MAR 1385 APR 1604 MAY 1619 JUN 1746