Rambus Plunges After Losing Jury Trial

Rambus Inc. (RMBS) fell as much as 78 percent after it lost a $3.95 billion jury trial over its allegations that Micron Technology Inc. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. conspired to prevent its memory chips from becoming an industry standard.

A state court jury in San Francisco today by a 9-3 vote rejected Rambus’s claims that Boise, Idaho-based Micron and Ichon, South Korea-based Hynix are liable for colluding to manipulate prices of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips in violation of California antitrust law.

Jurors found by the same vote, after deliberating since Sept. 22, that the two companies aren’t liable for plotting to interfere with Rambus’s business relationship with Intel Corp. (INTC) and driving the world’s largest chipmaker away from their collaboration on RDRAM, or Rambus-designed memory, that began in the 1990s.

“We are disappointed with this verdict as we believe strongly in our case,” Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer of Rambus, said in an e-mailed statement. “We do not agree with several rulings that affected how this case was presented to the jury and we are reviewing our options for appeal.”

Rambus said it would have made $3.95 billion in royalties without the alleged conspiracy. Under California law, a jury finding of antitrust damages in that amount would have been automatically tripled to $11.9 billion.
‘Investment Thesis’

Trading in Rambus and Micron in New York was halted today after it was announced that the jury had reached a verdict. After trading resumed at 3:40 p.m., Rambus fell as much as $14.04 to $4.00 and Micron rose as much as 25 percent to $6.84.
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