Samsung Settles With Rambus for $900 Million
Samsung to fork over $900 million to Rambus to put memory patent woes to rest.
Rambus has emerged victorious from another legal patent-laced battle. The memory company announced with Samsung that the two had reached a settlement agreement and a forward-going license.
As part of the overall agreement, Samsung will initially pay Rambus $200 million as well as invest another $200 million in Rambus stock. Over the next five years, Samsung will have to pay Rambus about $100 million per year, split into quarterly payments.
In addition, the companies also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work on a new generation of memory technologies that will focus on graphics and mobile memory solutions and will further review a potential collaboration on server and high-speed NAND Flash memories.
"We have a tremendous opportunity to renew a partnership which has created solutions that have benefited consumers worldwide," said Harold Hughes, President and CEO of Rambus. "Bringing together Samsung’s market and technology leadership with our innovations for high-performance and high-efficiency memory architectures will make possible an exciting new generation of mobile, computing and consumer electronics products."
Rambus settled a patent license agreement with memory maker Hynix last year.
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I wonder if the settlement came with some lube... Samsung got REAMED.
Another victory for RamBus; now if they ever make a new product, they are well funded for at least 5 years.
more money for rambus to sue someone else...
Still no mention of Rambus victory over nvidia in court yet?
i wondered what that chafing was all about!
Another victory for RamBus; now if they ever make a new product, they are well funded for at least 5 years.
What new product?
Their business model is clearly defined as "patent troll"
prepare for the comeback of $300 RAM modules.....
Samsung should in retaliation buy out Rambus and dissolve the company.
$900MM to the company that gave us CRIMMS.... wtf.
Should have bought Rambus stocks after the RDRAM failure. I'd be rich today! Well, less poor at any rate.
What's with the picture???? I used that for world domination facebook group, but for this? really?
for the love of god now ram is going to go up in price even more.... whats the shit made out of gold!
As long as I don't have another option for choosing a mobo, video card, and so on, ill be ok. Now if they come out with DDR4 and DDR5 I'm all for that. Just make DDR3 PC16000 go down for goodness sake. JMO
Rambus the the ultimate compilation of hustlers:Grab patents, sue enough to survive another few years. Rinse and repeat.
I should've copyrighted that mental image of the rambus ceo!
As it is I see you found it.
Rambus should be penalized for suing companies over technology they (Rambus) didn't invent.
While I'm no fan of Rambus, do most of you know how technology companies work? The smaller ones rarely make a complete product, they make minor enhancements to existing IP. Usually they get bought up, but often times bigger companies will simply use those enhancements without paying. This prohibits innovation... As much of it comes from from these smaller companies.
A good example (although not having anything to do with computers) is the guy who invented the intermittent wiper. He developed a small improvement in a large, complex machine. Should he have created a whole new car to implement this new technology? I'm going to say no... But it was a legitimate addition to existing IP (cars), and he deserved to be compensated for it.
Now Rambus is a bit unusual, as they do occasionally make physical products, but their main source of revenue is the research they do to create better RAM products... I think (as many others do) that they try to charge way to much for their IP, but to say they don't add anything or create anything is an ignorant statement.
Rambus doesn't even do that much, siuol11. Their business model is to patent the things discussed in JEDEC meetings, remember?
Has RAMBUS done any actual business in the past 5+ years? All I know of them, besides all their damn lawsuits, is that they made RDRam for some P4 platforms years ago and it never caught on cuz of the ridiculous prices for their license/ram
Yes, Rambus has done business. What they do isn't normally covered by tech rags though- so much of the nitty-gritty of the tech world isn't. If you want a more in-depth view of how stuff works in the tech world, read sites like semiaccurate.com. Places like Tom's are really glorified press release aggregates.
Thank god they came to an agreement , does this mean Samsung can keep doing what its been doing?
Yes, Rambus has done business. What they do isn't normally covered by tech rags though- so much of the nitty-gritty of the tech world isn't. If you want a more in-depth view of how stuff works in the tech world, read sites like semiaccurate.com. Places like Tom's are really glorified press release aggregates.
Did you say semiaccurate? That site blows chunks. At Semi accurate any dissent from the NVidia hating party line is quickly ran roughshod over, and put down like a rabid dog, the offender expeditiously banned from further post and the entire unsightly blemish removed from the site. While I enjoy a juicy rumor as well as the next patron of a hair solon, I don’t want to navigate the Gestapo to hear them. Do yourself a favor and steer clear of semiaccurate.
Fanboyism is the curse of tech rags left and right, I don't see any less of it on this site... And I actually trust Charlie to keep his facts straight and not put out whatever corporate line PR wants him to.
RAMBUTT hasn't done anything since the crappy RD-RAM designs they made for intel.
Stick them in bed with SCO.
but to say they don't add anything or create anything is an ignorant statement.
What was the last actual product released by Rambus?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambus
I can see that XDR is used in the PS3, but exactly how much of that technology was siphoned away from the JEDEC meetings then patented in bad faith?
What was the last actual product released by Rambus?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RambusI can see that XDR is used in the PS3, but exactly how much of that technology was siphoned away from the JEDEC meetings then patented in bad faith?
Sorry, did you not read the rest of the comment? I believe I already explained that...