Samsung pled guilty to a DRAM price-fixing conspiracy and agreed to pay $300 million in fines. The payment is the second largest antitrust fine in history. The company and its subsidiary Samsung Semiconductor admitted that it conspired with others to fix prices for DRAM for servers and PCs from April 1, 1999 to June 15, 2002. Dynamic Random Access Memory, or DRAM, is the most common form of memory found in PCs, mobile devices and portable music players. South Korea's Hynix and Germany's Infineon also pled guilty to the price fixing charges, but other defendants remain.
For all the cloak and dagger tactics, it seems like none of the indicted companies turned a huge profit from DRAM sales because of the deals. Although Samsung had been traditionally in the black, Hynix and others claim to have collectively lost billions while trying to sell DRAM.
For more on the Samsung's DRAM conspiracy:
- check this article out from CNET
PLUS: Samsung announced its first profitable quarter after five in the red. Article