Elpida Reaches Settlement with DOJ on Industry Wide DRAM Antitrust Investigation
TOKYO, JAPAN, January 31 (January 30 in US time), 2006 - Elpida Memory, Inc. (Elpida) announced today that it has reached an agreement with the United States Department of Justice - Antitrust Division - (DOJ) to plead guilty to certain violations of US antitrust laws in connection with certain DRAM sales during the period of April 1999 through June 2002, including certain sales made by NEC and Hitachi prior to the commencement of Elpida's sales operation. The total fine amount in the agreement is US$ 84 million.
Elpida will fund US$9.5 million of the fine itself. This amount is within the range of already fixed reserve for this issue, and our financial estimate announced on January 24, 2006 is not changed due to this settlement.
Information in this news release is current as of the timing of the release, but may be revised later without notice.