Government Brings Antitrust Actions Against Rambus, Micron

A Happy Plague writes "I work at a hedge fund and one of the nice ammenities are real time news tickers. At 11:34 EDT, a nice red line scrolled on my screen.."FTC Alleges Rambus Violates Antitrust Laws". The headlines followed..."...Anticompetitive Acts... Deceived standard setting organization...never acknowledged patents... deceptive conduct..." Too bad it takes a long time fo bureacracies to work, but they usually come around. Yahoo News has the story." Of course all rambus has to do now is buy a president to get out from under this. In related news, Tricot writes "Over at Salon, there is a newswire article claiming that the justice department is investigating memory chip maker Micron for anti-competitive practices. Wow, if it's a monopoly, then it certainly hasn't hurt prices."

Comments

Starts now, technology is well established

[Marx_Mrvelous]

So, I rememebr hearing about all this what, two years ago? When Rambus was going to the "the" definitive memory solutions. While DDR is certainly very successful, Rambus is still the premier memory technology. Now, it's always been clear to me that they've done this illegally.

I wonder, if they persued this earlier if we wouldn't see Rambus out right now. DDR, IMHO, is the better, cheaper solution. A small push against Rambus two years ago might have been enough to force them from the market.

Re:Starts now, technology is well established

[Zathrus]

No, no, no... the anti-trust investigation has nothing to do with RDRAM.

It has everything to do with SDRAM and DDR.

Rambus was part of the JEDEC back when SDRAM standards were being developed. They withdrew shortly after the standards were being seriously discussed, but (allegedly) not before suggesting certain methods of doing things... which as it turns out they have patents on.

Part of being involved in JEDEC, as with most standards bodies, is playing fair. You don't recommend that a standard adopt a method that you own the patent on unless you have fully disclosed that patent and have agreed to reasonable licensing terms. Rambus didn't do this. That's the crux of the lawsuit. And they're pretty well screwed here - Dell tried this many years ago and got toasted - their patents were ruled invalid because of exactly the same thing.

RDRAM doesn't come into play. DDR does because DDR uses a lot of the same technologies that SDRAM does, which is where Rambus has its patent claims. Rambus allowed the standard(s) to be set, manufacturing to occur for a few years, and then served papers to every memory maker out there - telling them to either pay a royalty on these undisclosed patents or go to court for infringement. What amazes me is how many of the memory makers rolled over and played dead - only Micron, Infineon, and Hynix refused and counter-sued Rambus.

Rambus probably would still exist even without these patents, simply because of the inane deal that Intel upper management signed a few years ago. They're finally working their way out of that boondoggle... of course, in the meantime AMD has gained market presence largely due to that mistake.

Micron Hasn't hurt prices? What are you smoking?

[Squeezer]

Micron consistantly lobbies Congress to increase the tarriffs on foreign RAM memories makers. Do you know why?

Because Micron can't produce their ram as cheaply as their foreign competitors. So they get Congress to increase the tarriffs to a point where foreign produced ram costs about the same or slightly higher to purchase then Micron ram.

I say boo fucking hoo to Micron. If they can't produce it as cheap as everyone else then they should get out of the business.

How is this not a monopoly?

Here's some more...

[Marx_Mrvelous]

This is what they are saying Rambus's actions caused: (quoting the official FTC release) increases in the price - and/or reductions in the use or output - of SDRAM chips, as well as other products incorporating or using SDRAM technology

decreased incentives, on the part of memory manufacturers, to produce memory using SDRAM technology;

decreased incentives, on the part of memory manufacturers and others, to participate in JEDEC or other industry standard-setting organizations or activities;

and both within and outside the memory industry, decreased reliance, or willingness to rely, on standards established by industry standard- setting collaborations.

misleading summary as ususal

[nexthec]

Micron Technology Inc., one of the nation's biggest maker of computer memory chips, said it, and other companies, are being investigated by the Department of Justice for alleged "anticompetitive practices."

the key part is "it, and other companies" I firmly belive that micron will not be involved as a defendant, but as a witness and support of the FTC seeing how they pretty much told RAMBUS to eat their shorts and got the FTC involved in the first place.

Re:Micron Hasn't hurt prices? What are you smoking

[Cognitive Dissident]

How is this not a monopoly?

It's not a monopoly because there are still many competitors in the market. But yes, it is anti-competitive -- an unfair way to pursue an advantage over those competitors. I guess you could say they've been using unfair practices to keep their uncompetitive RAM manufacturing business afloat. :)

I'm still wondering why Microsoft's trick of forcing the PC manfacturers to collect the tarrif on non-MS operating systems instead of lobbying the govt. to do it was not anti-competitive, myself...

Link to actual FTC complaint

[KillerCow]

You can find the actual FTC Administrative Complaint here.

not only monopolies ...

[bigpat]

"Wow, if it's a monopoly, then it certainly hasn't hurt prices."

Not only monopolies are guilty of anticompetive acts. Basically, any action that is "in restraint of trade" or "deceptive" by businesses are illegal.

"Market forces"

[hrafn42]

because his administration is hesitant to interfere with market forces

Firstly, may I point out that the Bush administration's stance on steel tariffs and agricultural subsidies shows that it has no problem with interfering with market forces.

Secondly, may I point out that Microsoft has been found by the courts to be a Monopoly. This means that it has substantial market power and that "market forces"="Microsoft's will" in this particular market.
So what you are really saying is that the Bush administration is hesitant to interfere with Microsoft's will.
Well, I suppose that's accurate. ;)

As to the Micron actions...

[jcarley]

The basis of the media reports I have seen on Micron et al are that they are being investigated for trying to lower prices in order to force out a competitor. This presumably relates to the Hynix situation last year. It is not about raising prices, but coordinated lowering. Specific allegatins will probably not be clear until any charges or suits are filed.