Samsung to pay HUGE $300M fine for price fixing!

[foodfightr]

Samsung is one of the three companies and five individuals who have been charged and fined $646 million as part of a probe into price-fixing in the sale of dynamic random access memory semiconductors (DRAM), the most commonly used memory chip in everything from personal computers to mobile phones and digital cameras.

LA TIMES ARTICLE

 

[Pabster]

Anyone smell DRAM prices going north in short order?

 

[bendixG15]

from the LA Times......

In addition to Samsung, Korean manufacturer Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG of Germany also have pleaded guilty to price-fixing.
............................

 

[Schadenfroh]

that is so 1999

 

[eXx08]

Wow that's alot of money. Just think of what you could do with that. By the biggest fastest gaming computer ever.X100000

Or you could get 300,000,000 Reeses Cups

 

[DavidoFoo]

What's price fixing? Anyway, reese's are so good, especially the mini's.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: bendixG15
from the LA Times......

In addition to Samsung, Korean manufacturer Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG of Germany also have pleaded guilty to price-fixing.
............................

Ruh roh...those are some of the biggest chip manufacturers. No word on Nanya or Micron?

 

[kitkat22]

Price fixing is essentially collaberating with competitors to set artificially higher prices.

 

[dowxp]

aka collusion

 

[Trevelyan]

So will this drive prices up or down?

 

[Reiniku]

Originally posted by: DavidoFoo
What's price fixing? Anyway, reese's are so good, especially the mini's.

QFT

 

[sys-eng]

A friend of mine studied this as part of his MBA work in school. He found no record that the fine was ever paid. Hmmm.

 

[piasabird]

Make them chase down all the consumers and pay them like $5 each or something like that. By the time a class action lawsuit involving something like this goes through everyone has thrown their old computer away and no longer have any Receipts.

 

[piasabird]

300M is so small it is like a tax write-off for a company that large.

 

[sys-eng]

300M is so small it is like a tax write-off for a company that large.

Not really. Fines and penalties are not tax deductible. The amount is substantial also. At the time, it was more than 20% of a quarter's profit. If a company misses its quarterly earnings by 20%, the stock takes a big hit.


The lack of payment or receipt record does look suspicious.

 

[Slugbait]

sniff-sniff

Hmmm. Gym socks, gym jocks. A wet dog that rolled in a dead fish. Rob Schneider's acting career. My MIL's beer farts. The Jonas Brothers.

And this thread.

(guess the topic)

 

[wirednuts]

wasnt this a ruling made years ago? i think this is just the sentencing being handed out. so dont expect prices to change much- thats why they fell so dramatically the last few years- because they were caught overcharging and they had to stop.

a few years from now- seagate, WD and hitatchi will probably be caught for artificially inflating prices due to a fake flood.

 

[PliotronX]

So are the profit margins that large enough to offset the losses from occasional price fixing fines?

 

[sys-eng]

So are the profit margins that large enough to offset the losses from occasional price fixing fines?

If they never really pay the fine, then absolutely!

Sometimes such penalties are settled by the manufacturer's commitment to reduce the price of the next 300 million units by $1 but the problem is you do not know what the future price was going to be anyway.