LOS ALTOS, Calif. -- Spiraling legal fees, which could reach $5 million in the current fiscal quarter, are eating heavily into Rambus Inc.'s earnings, company officials told financial analysts after reporting $13.2 million in net income for the three months ended Dec. 31.
Geoffrey Tate, chief executive officer, said three court trials are slated in February and March, which will run up legal costs. He also told analysts that additional lawsuits might be filed against Rambus. "It something that happens with large companies going against a small company," he said.
Two separate non-jury trials against Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. and Micron technology Inc. will occur Feb. 19 in Germany. The patent suit against Infineon technologies AG will go to jury trial March 13 in the federal district court in Richmond.
Tate said the Micron case is tentatively slated for trial in October, and the German trial against Hyundai has been deferred until 2002.
Rambus didn't refer to its patent case against Hyundai in the High Court of Justice in London, which was put on hold until the European Patent Commission rules on the validity of Rambus synchronous DRAM patents.
As reported this week, Rambus has threatened Hyundai, Infineon and Micron that it might refuse them synchronous DRAM licenses under its patents if they lose their litigation with the firm. Asked if any negotiations were ongoing to settle the suits, Tate would not reply directly, instead saying, "We always stand ready to negotiate a settlement up to very day of any trial."
The conference call with analysts followed Rambus first fiscal quarter financial report showing $13.2 million net income on revenues of $34.7 million, compared with $2.6 million earnings on $11.9 million revenue for the same period a year ago (see Jan. 11 story). The revenue jump included the first SDRAM royalties from Samsung Electronics Co. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., which Tate said included the one-time licensing fee from both companies.
In the traditional SEC-required cautionary note, Rambus said its royalties on Direct Rambus DRAMs could be impacted because "prices of RDRAMs remain high compared to SDRAMs." Tate told analysts that the present Direct RDRAM price premium over SDRAM may be $50 in some cases, due to the synchronous memory free fall. However, higher Direct RDRAM volumes spurred by Intel's Pentium 4 launch and cost-cutting efforts are expected to reduce the premium to 20% in the second half of 2001 and to 10% in 2002, he added.
RSS
Digital
HDD roadmap:
The hard disk drive (HDD) industry finds its lifeblood in a technology roadmap. The areal density roadmap describes the number of magnetic bits per unit area on the disk platter--thereby defining the storage capacity.
10 CEOs out in 2009:
It's been a tough year for the global electronics industry and CEOs. We survey the dismissal of 10 industry CEOs during the first three quarters of 2009 and what's ahead for the rest of the year.
Top 10 IC vendors with cash:
The world's biggest IC companies by revenue rank not only among the best in their respective industry segments but are also more likely to have huge piles of cash that can be used to fund acquisitions, R&D and product development
10 companies in trouble (revisited):
What follows is an updated version of 10 companies in trouble. Some companies have been removed since the last version, others remain. Still others have been added to the mix.
MIPS to go after the cellphone?:
ARM dominates the global cell phone market, and many industry observers scoff at MIPS as a viable player in mobile phone designs. But MIPS disclosed that over the next one or two years' time, there will be MIPS-based handsets shipped.
Hot technologies to watch for in 2009:
Every technologist, marketer, industry analyst and reporter on a hunt for the next big thing is bracing for the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show scheduled less than a month away.
Notable women in microelectronics
EE Times has compiled an international list that celebrates women who are business and technology leaders in microelectronics.
EE Times updates Silicon 60
Seventeen companies have been added to the lastest version of our Silicon 60 list of emerging startups. Forty-three companies survived as emerging companies that are still worth watching.
RSS| 
Digital| 
Mobile
