Samsung Electronics and Rambus announced today that they have reached an agreement that settles all claims between them for a total amount of approximately $900 million.
Under terms of the agreement, Samsung will make an initial payment of $200 million, followed by $25 million in quarterly payments over the next five years and a $200 million investment in Rambus stocks. The two companies have also signed a memorandum of understanding which will purportedly combine the innovations of the two companies for future products. While the firms will initially focus on GDDR and mobile memory solutions, the duo may later branch into server and NAND Flash applications as well. Finally, the comprehensive settlement package has inked an unspecified set of licensing agreements regarding certain current DRAM technologies.
“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.”
Today’s settlement brings one of the many outstanding chapters of a legal spider web dating back at least 10 years to a close. While Rambus has other cases pending, including one with Micron Technologies, it is likely that the recent agreement with Samsung will accelerate their closure.
Articles RSS