X-bit labs

Rambus May Be Taken Over – Rumours.

Category: Memory

by Anton Shilov

[ 09/13/2005 | 08:08 PM ]

Technology company Rambus’ shares surged significantly late last week as rumours about possible acquisition of the memory and interface developer by another company. Among likely buyers of the company some analysts note Samsung, who is in legal dispute with Rambus, other observers assume that Intel might be interested in the company.

Rambus claims it owns patents on key-technologies used in modern dynamic random access memory that is deployed in every single computer sold. The company is trying to force all makers of DRAM to pay royalties to Rambus for every single SDRAM, DDR SDRAM and DDR2 SDRAM chip sold. However, numerous memory makers and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) act against Rambus. Recently the company filed a lawsuit against one of its main customer Samsung Electronics, after which the company’s stock price has been declining.

Mike Cohen, an analyst with Pacific American Securities, reportedly would point to South Korean electronics giant Samsung Corp., who is, along with Hynix Semiconductor and Micron Technology, are the key companies in a patent dispute with Rambus. Still, he said the takeover was unlikely.

Rambus declines to comment on rumours and speculations.