Are the Chips Taking It on the Chin?
Samsung might need to boost spending on lawyers as well as chip plants.
The electronics giant, which recently posted upbeat earnings and forecasts, was one of several chip makers slapped with steep fines by the European Commission for price fixing.
It faces the heaviest fine–145.7 million euros (US$182 million)–while rival Micron Technology (MU) got off the hook by cooperating with authorities in the investigation.
Along with Samsung, eight other chip makers, including Germany’s Infineon Technologies, South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor, Taiwan’s Nanya Technology, and Japan’s Elpida Memory and Toshiba, were fined a combined 330 million euros. The chip makers and analysts say it’s no big deal.
That’s because the market for dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, is booming as replacement demand from consumers and corporations for PCs is picking up. Capital spending over the past two years remained weak, curtailing global supply. Chip prices have held firm so far this year, enabling the likes of Samsung and Micron to post strong profits so far.
