Micron and Oracle Settle DRAM Price Fixing Lawsuit

Marking one of the rare cases when an antitrust lawsuit actually ends instead of being started, Micron and Oracle have reached a settlement in their antitrust battle. 

With all the legal fights going on, there are few occasions where we can actually sit back and say that progress is being made.

As such, Micron and Oracle are actually part of the minority in terms of IT companies that face each other in court.

And by minority, we mean to say that the times we hear about companies settling their differences are fewer and far between than the ones where a new lawsuit is filed.

Oracle filed a suit against Micron a while ago, saying that the latter participated in a conspiracy to increase DRAM prices.

It also accused Micron of having broken a number of other federal and state antitrust and fair competition laws, between August 1, 1998 and June 15, 2002.

The monetary implications of their settlement were not perfectly outlined, but it seems like Micron is the one doing the paying.

In other words, while all claims have been dropped and litigation dismissed with prejudice, Micron will be the one suffering from financial losses.

For those interested, as far as the second fiscal quarter of 2012 goes, the net loss to shareholders and revenue amounts to $282 million (2011.25 million Euro), though not all of it is attributable to the settlement.

In case anyone wants to see more about legal spats on the IT market, the most recent one we wrote about is the one involving Samsung's chairman. Unlike on other occasions, it wasn't the company that got sued, but its chairman. By his family.  

That's right, on the one hand we have IT players moving past their conflict, and on the other we have the industry becoming the playground for a family feud. Alas.

Posted in: Hardware, News