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Micron Seeking Amnesty in DoJ Antitrust Probe?

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the playing-nice dept.

deaddeng writes "Memory maker Micron Technology is allegedly seeking amnesty from a US Dept. of Justice grand jury investigation of price fixing, collusion, and antitrust by the memory industry, according to numerous news services, including the LA Times and Reuters. Last week, a Micron regional marketing employee pled guilty to charges brought under the same DoJ investigation for destruction of evidence and lying to the grand jury. The DoJ is investigating charges that major memory makers colluded to prevent the success of Rambus memory favored by Intel, and once that was achieved, colluded again to raise prices for DDR-SDRAM in 2001-02. If Micron is granted amnesty, it can keep its executives from facing criminal prosecution, but it may still face civil court challenges."

3 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Don't be fooled. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    I can see the +5 funny posts now:

    "Wait, geeky price-fixing is evil! But patent-abusing RAMBUS is evil, too! Who's the good guy, help me ./, I don't know who to cheer for!"

    Don't be fooled into thinking there's a good guy in all of this. There isn't. There is, however, a bad guy, and it's called capitalism.

    1. Re:Don't be fooled. by kfg · · Score: 0, Troll

      There is, however, a bad guy, and it's called capitalism.

      Which is why me and the boys will be arriving shortly to nationalise your house, car and income.

      We also strongly suspect you've been exploiting your animal companion rather mercilessly, so we'll have to declare it a ward of the state and remove it for its own protection.

      You may occupy your work cell on Monday, in the meantime. . .

      Have a nice day citizen.

      KFG

  2. Micron deserves amnesty! by SexyKellyOsbourne · · Score: 2, Troll

    If this were a socialist country, or Micron was a monopoly like Microsoft, then such a thing would be possible. However, this is a free market, and any company who wants to sell a lot of RAM would not join a price fixing collusion, but exclude themselves from it. If Micron was doing such a thing, why wouldn't Crucial, Buffalo, Geil, Kingston, and so forth lower their prices and blow the competition away? Most of what happened was because Rambus RAM was attempting to become an overpriced proprietary monopoly (and fortunately failed), plus that huge RAM factory burned down in 2001.

    Obviously, a rival is bribing -- I mean, influencing through political contributions -- high-ranking officials to target Micron alone. Perhaps RAMBUS wants to be like SCO and take honest people to the grave with them? Micron deserves amnesty.