Samsung to pay U.S. states $90 million in DRAM case
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A price-fixing scheme caused computer makers such as Apple and Dell to pay more for dynamic RAM than they would have in a competitive market, a lawsuit alleged, and the costs were then passed on to consumers.
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GIANT MEMORY company Infineon will plead guilty to price fixing of DRAM chips and will pay $160 million in fines to the US government.
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The world's largest DRAM maker agrees to pay multimillion dollar fine in a DRAM price-fixing suit.
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SEOUL Hynix Semiconductor, the world&#39;s second-largest maker of computer memory chips, was responsible in 1999 for accounting violations involving 2 trillion won, or $1.
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Toshiba has agreed to pay $288 million to settle lawsuits between it and memory chipmaker Lexar Media, which was acquired by Micron Technology in June. Since 2002, Lexar has been engaged in a court battle with Toshiba regarding patent infringement of flash memory technology.
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Germany&#39;s Infineon Technologies AG has agreed to plead guilty to charges of price-fixing and pay a $160 million fine as part of a US investigation into the computer-memory chip industry, US antitrust authorities said Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has subpoenaed Advanced Micro DevicesÂ as part of an antitrust investigation into the market for graphics processors and graphics cards, AMD said Thursday. AMD recently entered the graphics chip business with itsÂ acquisition of ATI Technologies, which was finalized last month. The DOJ has not made any allegations against AMD or ATI, and AMD intends to cooperate with the investigation, it said. While the DOJ hasn't said specifically what it is investigating, one industry analyst speculated that the case could be about price fixing. The DOJ has alreadyÂ charged a number of chip companiesÂ in the DRAMÂ memory chip market for price fixing, and isÂ investigating severalÂ in the SRAM (Static RAM) chip market. "If the DOJ wanted to, it could just go down every line in the semiconductor industry and find the same issue," said Gartner analyst Richard Gordon. That's because there are a relatively few number of suppliers in the chip industry and an open flow of communication between competitors and customers, who may not define price fixing the same way the DOJ does, he said. The investigations are unlikely to benefit end users, according to Gordon. Historically, prices in the chip industry have gone up and down based on supply and demand and he doubts that such investigations will result in lower pricing. A spokeswoman for AMD in Europe, Hollis Krym, said she did not know if the investigation has a broad scope and includes other graphics chip companies or if it is in the context of the ATI acquisition. U.S. antitrust authorities have already approved AMD's merger with ATI. In the DRAM market, the DOJ has charged Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor America, Elpida Memory, and Infineon TechnologiesÂ with price fixing and sentenced the companies to pay multi-million dollar fines. Sony, Cypress Semiconductor, and the U.S. arms of Mitsubishi Electric, Samsung Electronics, and Toshiba have all been asked to turn over information to the DOJ for an investigation into SRAM price fixing.
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By Bob Mims, The Salt Lake Tribune  Feb. 8--Samsung will pay $90 million to settle a lawsuit filed by 50  states, including Utah, over the alleged fixing of prices for computer memory  chips.   The bulk of the settlement, $80 million, goes directly to consumers.
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(InfoWorld) - An executive at Samsung Electronics, the world's largest manufacturer of DRAM (dynamic RAM), has agreed to plead guilty and serve jail time for participating in a global price-fixing conspiracy, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said Thursday. The DOJ said Thomas Quinn participated in a price-fixing conspiracy in his position as vice president of marketing for memory products at Samsung Semiconductor Inc., Samsung's U.S. subsidiary. The DOJ charged Quinn with violating the U.S. Sherman Act, which lays out antimonopoly regulations. The DOJ alleged that he helped engineer an agreement to fix DRAM prices and to coordinate bids in a Dec. 5, 2001 Sun Microsystems Inc. auction. Under the plea agreement, which must be approved by the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Quinn has agreed to serve an eight-month prison sentence and pay a US$250,000 fine. In addition, Quinn has agreed to assist the DOJ in its ongoing investigation, which it is pursuing in conjunction with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). "We are still very actively investigating antitrust violations in the DRAM industry," the DOJ's Antitrust Division director of criminal enforcement, Scott Hammond, said in a statement. DRAM is the most commonly used semiconductor memory product. The alleged price fixing harmed computer makers, by making manufacturers such as Apple Computer Inc., Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. pay more for DRAM than they otherwise would have, the DOJ said. The costs were then passed on to consumers, it pointed out. In March,Â three other Samsung executives agreed to a similar plea deal. Sun Woo Lee, Samsung's senior manager of DRAM sales, agreed to a sentence of eight months in U.S. prison. Yeongho Kang, associate director of DRAM Marketing for Samsung's U.S. subsidiary, and Young Woo Lee, sales director for Samsung's German subsidiary, both agreed to serve seven months. The three also agreed to each pay a $250,000 fine. With Thursday's plea agreement, four companies and 13 individuals have been charged and fines totaling more than $731 million have resulted from the DOJ's investigation. Among other related plea deals and charges, Samsung was ordered in November 2005 to pay a $300 million fine. Hynix was ordered in May 2005 to pay $185 million. Elpida Memory agreed in January to pay $84 million. And Infineon agreed in October 2004 to pay $160 million. In addition to the DOJ case, similar investigations and charges are being pursued on the state level. Samsung faces charges in a price-fixing lawsuit filed in Manhattan by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, working with other states. And in July,Â 34 states filed a joint antitrust lawsuit against seven DRAM makersÂ over price fixing. That lawsuit did not include Samsung, but did include Micron Technology Inc.; Infineon Technologies AG; Hynix Semiconductor Inc.; Elpida Memory Inc.; NEC Electronics America Inc.; Mosel Vitelic Inc. and Nanya Technology Corp.
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An executive at Samsung Electronics, the world's largest manufacturer of DRAM (dynamic RAM), has agreed to plead guilty and serve jail time for participating in a global price-fixing conspiracy, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said Thursday.
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German microchip giant Infineon Technologies agreed to plead guilty and to pay a 160 million dollar fine for participating in &quot;an international conspiracy to fix prices&quot; US officials said.
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Toshiba has filed patent infringement lawsuits in Japan and the US against South Korea&#39;s Hynix Semiconductor. The suits allege that Hynix violated Toshiba&#39;s patents covering NAND-type flash memory chips.
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German microchip giant Infineon Technologies agreed to plead guilty and to pay a 160 million dollar fine for participating in &quot;an international conspiracy to fix prices,&quot; US officials said.
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SOUTH Korea &#39;s Samsung Electronics, the world&#39;s largest memory chipmaker, is to invest $US24 billion ($31 billion) in new chip production lines over the next six years.
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WASHINGTON - Infineon Technologies AG, a German manufacturer of DRAM (dynamic RAM) has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $160 million fine for attempting to fix prices in the DRAM market, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday.
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By Kyodo News International, Tokyo  Sep. 15--TOKYO -- Toshiba Corp. said Friday it has settled all  outstanding litigation related to flash memory products with Micron Technology  Inc.
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Samsung Electronics has replied to a&#160;patent-infringement lawsuit filed against it by Sharp&#160;by lodging complaints of its own with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Tokyo District Court, it said Thursday.Samsung filed the U.S. complaint on Dec. 21 and alleged that Sharp&#39;s LCD products infringe upon four of its U.S. patents. The patents were not detailed in Samsung&#39;s statement. It asked the trade regulator to launch an investigation into the complaints and, as is typical in such cases, block Sharp from importing into the U.S. products that contain the LCDs in question. Such products could include TVs, monitors, laptop PCs, and cell phones.The ITC will now examine the complaint and decide whether to move forward with a formal investigation.Samsung followed the U.S. complaint with a complaint lodged in Tokyo on Wednesday in which it alleged that LCD televisions sold by Sharp in Japan incorporate LCD modules that infringe upon two of Samsung&#39;s Japanese patents. As in the U.S. complaint, Samsung asked the court to halt manufacturing and sales of the infringing products in Japan.On Dec. 12,&#160;Sharp filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung&#160;in the Seoul Central District Court. The lawsuit alleges the LCD modules and televisions manufactured and/or sold by Samsung in South Korea infringe upon three Sharp patents. The Korean patents concern technology that allows high brightness and high-speed response as well as a wide viewing angle, Sharp said in a statement at the time.The lawsuit was the second filed by Sharp against Samsung.On Aug. 6, Sharp filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas alleging LCD modules manufactured by Samsung and LCD TVs, computer monitors and mobile phones that incorporate the modules infringed on its U.S. patents: 4,649,383 , 5,760,855 , 6,052,162 , 7,027,024, and 7,057,689 .Samsung said Thursday that it is also pursuing lawsuits against Sharp in Delaware and Texas.