Samsung, Toshiba join SanDisk in US antitrust probe
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NAND flash market goes under the scope The US Justice Department is busy handing out more RSVPs to NAND flash memory makers, cordially inviting them to a new market-wide price fixing investigation.â¦
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SEOUL (XFN-ASIA) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said that its US unit Samsung Semiconductor Inc has decided to allot 100 mln usd as provision against possible losses that may arise from the US government&#39;s anti-trust investigation into the company.
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Seoul, Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. said today it has set aside $100 million to cover costs associated with the price-fixing investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for alleged price-fixing
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European and U.S. regulators said Tuesday they have been investigating a possible cartel involving makers of liquid crystal display monitors.
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The U.S. International Trade Commission said it agreed to Samsungâs request to investigate Sharp for allegedly infringing liquid crystal display patents.
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(InfoWorld) - An investigation into possible anticompetitive behavior in the flat-panel display market widened Tuesday, with four more big vendors saying they had been contacted by investigators. Samsung ElectronicsÂ said it had been served with subpoenas by regulators in the U.S., South Korea, and Japan, while Sharp and Taiwan's AU Optronics were contacted by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), they said. Taiwan's Chi Mei Optoelectronics said a subsidiary in the U.S. was also contacted by the DOJ. The investigation came to light Monday when LG.Philips LCD Co.Â revealed that it had been subpoenaedÂ by regulators in the U.S., South Korea, and Japan. The probe centers on TFT (thin-film transistor) LCDs, according to Samsung. They are used in a wide range of electronics products including flat-panel televisions and computer monitors, laptop computers, cell phones, and digital music players. The three companies being investigated are among the largest manufacturers of such displays. The investigation comes on the heels of anticompetition probes in the DRAM (dynamic RAM) andÂ SRAM (static RAM) markets. The DRAM investigationÂ focussed on price-fixing, which is when vendors cooperate to set prices artificially. Sharp Spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said the company was surprised to have received the summons. Sharp has a policy of "fair and ethical management," she said. Cho Sung In, a spokeswoman for Samsung in Seoul, said: "Samsung Electronics is strongly committed to fair competition and ethical practices and forbids anti-competitive behavior." Among other LCD manufacturers, Sony said its joint-venture with Samsung, S-LCD, had not been contacted by the investigators. Shares in LG.Philips dropped 4 percent Tuesday, while Samsung's closed down two-thirds of a percent. The general market, as measured by the Kospi index, fell 1 percent. Sharp waited until after the market had closed to announce it had been contacted. Its shares rose 2 percent Tuesday. In the DRAM investigation, Market leaders Samsung andÂ Hynix Semiconductor pled guiltyÂ in 2005 to price-fixing and receivedÂ fines of $300 millionÂ and $185 million, respectively. Japan'sÂ Elpida Memory had to pay $84 millionÂ and Germany'sÂ Infineon Technologies paid a $160 million fine. In October several manufacturers of SRAM chips said they had been subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) although they did not disclose the nature of the DOJ's requests. The companies were Cypress Semiconductor and the U.S. units of Mitsubishi Electric, Samsung Electronics, Sony, and Toshiba. Â ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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InfoWorld - SanDiskÂ is suing 25 companies, including South Korean giant LG Electronics for allegedly infringing patents used in removable flash storage products including MP3 players and USB flash drives.
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(InfoWorld) - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has begun producing a flash memory-based solid-state disk drive for mobile computing applications. The drive is the latest in a growing line of products from Samsung and competitors that make use of flash memory chips instead of magnetic disc recording technology. Compared to today's hard-disk drives, SSDs are lighter, use less power and can read and write data faster. They are also more expensive but the price difference has been narrowing as flash chips have become cheaper so SSDs are now starting to appear in some laptops. The new Samsung drive has a capacity of 64G bytes and is the same size as a conventional 1.8-inch hard-disk drive. It's designed to be used in sub-notebook class computers, ultra-mobile PCs and other devices like portable media players. Samsung said it is seeing demand increase for such products, particularly from companies making ultra portable PCs. At the Computex show in Taipei earlier this month two major contract PC makers, First International Computer Inc. and Asustek Computer Inc., both showed prototype ultra portables and several other companies have already put such machines on sale. Samsung is one of the world's largest manufacturers of flash memory chips so the company has a lot to gain from SSDs becoming more popular. It estimated that the market for SSDs will increase 270 percent between now and 2010 to become the largest growth segment in the NAND flash memory market. The price of the drive, which will be sold to PC makers and not end-users, was not disclosed. Â
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Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS)  is being investigated by fair trade watchdogs in South Korea,  Japan and the United States, the second Korean flat screen  maker named in a probe into possible price-fixing, a news  agency report said on Tuesday.
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roundup Plus: Think local, act Google...SanDisk to supply Samsung with miniSD...Hitachi unleashes 100GB notebook drives.
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(InfoWorld) - Sun Microsystems and Unisys have jointly filed a lawsuit against several major computer memory chip makers seeking compensation for alleged price fixing. The two computer makers individually filed lawsuits against the companies earlier this year but have now brought the cases together in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, according to a Friday court filing. The complaint names South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies of Germany, Japan's Elpida Memory and Mitsubishi Electric, Taiwan's Mosel Vitelic and Nanya Technology, and U.S. and European units of some of the companies. The lawsuit is one of several filed against DRAM makers after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began an investigation into price fixing in 2002. That has already seen a number of guilty pleas by companies and executives and fines have been levied against some DRAM makers. Last year Samsung ElectronicsÂ wasÂ ordered to pay a $300 million criminal fineÂ and HynixÂ agreed to pay $185 million. InfineonÂ paid $160 million,Â and Japan's Elpida agreed toÂ pay a $84 million fine.
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Samsung Electronics, the worldâs second-largest memory-chip maker, said on Thursday it would make a $100m provision against possible fines in an ongoing US antitrust investigation.
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Advanced Micro Devices said it had received a subpoena regarding an investigation into possible antitrust violations in the graphics processor and card business.
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Toshiba is taking action to protect its patents. The Japan-based company has accused Hynix Semiconductor of violating seven patents in the United States, including ones for DRAM, and three flash-memory patents in Japan.
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CARLSBAD, Calif., March 9  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Patriot Scientific Corporation  (BULLETIN BOARD: PTSC)  confirmed today that SanDisk, the world's largest supplier of flash storage card products, has purchased a Moore Microprocessor Patent(TM) (MMP) Portfolio license.
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(InfoWorld) - U.S. government antitrust regulators have asked Intel Corp. and STMicroelectronics NV to provide more information about theirÂ plan to spin off their flash memory unit into a new company, the vendors said Thursday. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission made the request as part of its regulatory review in an effort to ensure the deal does not violate antitrust laws, according to Intel. If FTC investigators approve the terms, Intel and ST will be able to close the deal after a 30-day waiting period, the company said. "These kinds of transactions are reviewed by the FTC and it's not unusual for them to come back and ask for more information," said Intel spokesman Tom Beermann. Intel plans to comply with the request, but gave no deadline for providing the new information. "As part of the regulatory review, they do look at antitrust issues. This is a fairly complicated deal because there are three partners and there are different types of technology, and it is a fairly large deal," Beermann said. Intel and STMicroelectronics will share ownership of the new semiconductor business with ST holding a 48.6 percent stake, Intel owning 45.1 percent and private equity firm Francisco Partners LP holding 6.3 percent. The new company will be based in Switzerland and incorporated in the Netherlands. It will compete against flash vendors including Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Spansion Inc. Intel's main chip rival AMD spun off its flash unit in December 2005 to create Spansion. Intel and ST announced plans for the new business in May and expect it to employ about 8,000 staff. They will make NOR and NAND-type flash chips, which are typically used for storing data in consumer and industrial products such as cell phones, MP3 music players and digital cameras. Intel has struggled for years to make a profit from its flash business, and earlier in May said it would lay off as many as 1,000 workers when it closed an outdated flash plant in New Mexico. A spokeswoman for ST said the company also planned to comply with the FTC request, but would not confirm whether it was related to antitrust concerns. "We will provide all the information they need. The FTC needs it by the second half of 2007," said ST spokeswoman Carol Brown. "This is just part of the approval process." Â
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Japan's Pioneer Corp. 6773.T said on   Monday it filed a suit in the United States against South   Korea's Samsung SDI Co. 006400.KS and Samsung Electronics Co.   Ltd. 005930.KS for what it says are patent violations in its   plasma display panel technology.