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SK hynix, the world’s No. 2 supplier of computer memory chips, is expected to beat the long-time market leader Samsung Electronics in terms of profit margin during the April-June period. This is the first time in almost eight years for SK hynix to be more profitable than Samsung. In the third quarter of 2005, SK hynix (then Hynix Semiconductor) toppled Samsung by generating 31 percent in profit margin higher than Samsung’s 29 percent, they said. “As the memory chip shortage continues, conventional DRAM prices have extended gains. Consolidation and slowing technology migration is leading to significantly slowed supply growth. This...

For some time I have been following the legal dilemma of a computer memory design company, named RAMBUS, and their battles to retain their intellectual property rights against four memory manufacturing giants. The more I learn the more I believe the Federal Trade Commission is a corrupt bureaucracy. Perhaps the most comprehensive writing on this issue (in non-legalese) is the following letter I found on the Yahoo Rambus message board. ------------------------------- "The Honorable Pete V. Domenici United States Senate 328 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510-3101 Dear Senator Domenici, I am writing you regarding an ongoing enforcement action by...

Rambus (RMBS:Nasdaq - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) won a major court victory Monday when a jury found that South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor infringed on the company's patents. A federal court jury in San Jose, Calif., found that Hynix, the world's No. 2 computer memory maker, infringed on all 10 patents at issue, and awarded Rambus $307 million, according to Pacific American Securities analyst Michael Cohen, who has been attending the trial for the past month.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips for computers and other electronic gadgets, will plead guilty to price fixing and pay a $300 million fine, federal officials announced Thursday. The penalty is the second-largest criminal antitrust fine in history and caps a three-year investigation of the largest makers of "dynamic random access memory" chips, a $7.7 billion market in the United States. The guilty plea by South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and its U.S. subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor Inc., was to be entered Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The Justice Department already has...

By Nam In-soo Reuters Monday, April 22, 2002; 6:30 AM SEOUL, April 22-Micron Technology Inc signed on Monday a tentative deal worth about $3.4 billion to buy most of the assets of South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc in a move that would reshape the world computer memory chip market. If the purchase goes through, U.S.-based Micron would leapfrog South Korea's Samsung Electronics to become the world's largest memory chip maker, and Hynix, currently ranked third, would drop out of the sector. The deal gives the two companies and Hynix's creditors until April 30 to finalise a pact and it would...