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Mix-Ansicht- Infineon to Plead Guilty and pay a $160 million fine - CRASH_GURU, 16.09.2004, 19:02
Infineon to Plead Guilty and pay a $160 million fine
-->Infineon to Plead Guilty
in Memory Chip Case
By Peter Kaplan and Daniel Sorid
Reuters
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6247206
WASHINGTON and SAN FRANCISCO -- Germany's Infineon
Technologies AG has agreed to plead guilty to charges
of price fixing and pay a $160 million fine as part
of a federal investigation into the computer memory chip
industry, U.S. antitrust authorities said on Wednesday.
Infineon became the first chip maker to plead guilty in the
two-year probe, admitting to conspiring with unnamed
manufacturers to fix the prices of dynamic random access
memory, or DRAM, chips from 1999 to 2002, the Justice
Department said.
"There were high-level employees involved," said Hewitt
Pate, head of the department's antitrust division."This was
not a question of a couple of low-level, bad apples."
Pate said the conspiracy had driven up the price of chips
used in products ranging from personal computers and
servers to cell phones, cameras, and game consoles. The
fine to be paid by Infineon is the third-largest antitrust
penalty ever imposed by the government, Pate said.
As part of the plea agreement, Infineon agreed to
cooperate with the government's ongoing investigation.
Micron Technology Inc., South Korea's Samsung
Electronics Co. Ltd, and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.
have acknowledged involvement in the probe.
Memory prices have swung dramatically over the years,
sometimes for opaque reasons, prompting complaints of
cartel-like activity. Memory chip makers have denied
those allegations.
An Infineon executive said the case had been a"big
distraction," and that the company was glad to put it
in the past.
"We want to go back to the business of business,"
said Robert LeFort, president of Infineon Technologies
North America.
LeFort said the fine would be paid in installments over
the next five years. He said the plea agreement covers
all but four of Infineon's employees.
LeFort said Infineon is also nearing an agreement with
major computer manufacturers that would compensate
them for any alleged overcharges. That settlement is
expected to cost the company no more than $90 million,
LeFort said.
In December, a Micron regional sales manager agreed
to cooperate with investigators and plead guilty to
obstructing the computer-chip investigation by altering
and concealing documents sought by a California
federal grand jury.
The Justice Department has also sought documents
from a former Samsung sales manager, who has
refused to turn over any evidence.
The Justice Department said computer makers directly
affected by the scheme included Dell Inc., Apple
Computer Inc., International Business Machines Corp.,
Gateway Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Co. and the company
it bought, Compaq Computer Corp.
Micron spokesman David Parker said his company
continues to cooperate with the Justice Department, and
said Micron does not expect to be subject to fines or
penalties. Samsung, in a statement, said it would also
continue to cooperate with the probe.
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