Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc agreed to pay an US$84 million fine and plead guilty to taking part in an international conspiracy that led to higher prices for personal computers, the US Justice Department said on Monday.
Elpida is the fourth manufacturer of dynamic random access memory, known as DRAM, to admit its role in fixing the price of chips used in personal computers and other electronic devices.
"Today's charge demonstrates our continuing commitment to prosecute and deter cartels that harm American consumers," Thomas Barnett, acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, said in a statement.
"We are gratified to bring to justice another member of the DRAM cartel, which is one of the largest cartels ever discovered," he said.
The four-year federal investigation, carried out by US Justice Department officials in San Francisco, has so far netted US$730 million in fines.
The world's largest chip maker, South Korea-based Samsung, pleaded guilty last November and agreed to pay US$300 million, the second-largest fine in a criminal antitrust case.
Infineon Technologies of Germany and South Korean manufacturer Hynix Semiconductor have also pleaded guilty and paid fines.
Between 1999 and 2002, Elpida held conversations with unnamed competitors in the US and elsewhere, where the parties agreed to fix the prices they charged computer makers, according to documents filed in US District Court in San Francisco on Monday.
Elpida, which was the fifth-largest supplier of DRAM chips in the third quarter of last year, also worked with competitors to rig a bid for chips sold to Sun Microsystems Inc, according to the documents.
Elpida, which has been in operation since 2000, was formed as a joint venture between NEC Corp and Hitachi Ltd.
Under the plea deal, which must be approved by a federal judge, US Justice Department officials agreed not to prosecute either company. It also calls for Elpida to cooperate with officials in a continuing investigation into other DRAM suppliers.
The Justice Department investigation began in 2002, a year after memory chip prices began to climb even though the rest of the tech industry was suffering its worst downturn in history. Worldwide sales of DRAM chips reached US$25.3 billion last year, according to research firm iSuppli Corp.
The victims included computer companies like Dell Inc, Compaq Computer Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Apple Computer Inc, International Business Machines Corp and Gateway Inc, as well as consumers, who were forced to pay higher prices for computers and other electronics, prosecutors said.
Apple and Dell raised PC prices to offset higher DRAM costs while others reduced the amount of memory installed on their systems.
Elpida officials were not available for comment ahead of business hours in Tokyo.
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