Oracle Filed Lawsuit Against Micron

Oracle, the major software provider, is suing Micron, the solid-state memory maker, for price fixing. Oracle filed the lawsuit on September 24 in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. Micron is being accused with price fixing for approximately five years.

Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, the storage and workstation franchise. Sun Microsystmes bought over $2 billion dollars worth of Micron software. This software was dymanic random access memory (DRAM). This DRAM was in addition to finished solutions with several million dollars with of DRAM pre-installed, which Micron also purchased. According to Oracle, Micron conspired with Infineon, Samsung, Hynix and other companies to control DRAM’s price. DRAM was sold at this price to specific systems makers, including Sun Microsystems. This happened between 1998 and 2002.

Oracle has not specified how much money it wants in damages from Micron out of the lawsuit. Oracle also wants Micron to pay for court costs, interest, and restitution for disgorgement of revenue and earnings. This suit is a spin-off of an investigation being conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

This is not the beginning of accusations against Micron and the other memory companies. Last June, Micron and five other memory companies, were sued for similar reasons. The companies paid $173 million and interest to 33 states and private plaintiffs. The European Commission also charged these memory chip companies, last May.

Tags: DRAM, lawsuit, micron, Oracle