Mitsubishi Targeted for SRAM Inquiry
By Colleen Taylor -- EDN, October 16, 2006
Another shoe has dropped in the U.S. Department of Justice's budding SRAM investigation, reminiscent of the Department's recent investigation of DRAM price-fixing.
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. announced today that its subsidiary Mitsubishi Electric and Electronics U.S.A. Inc. has received a subpoena from the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division seeking information about the sales of Mitsubishi Electric static random access memory (SRAM) in the United States.
An impending full-fledged investigation of the SRAM industry seems to be underway. Last week, Cypress Semiconductor Corp. said it was notified that there will be an investigation of the SRAM market by the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.
Mitsubishi said it would make available employees, documents and all other relevant information to Justice Department's Antitrust Division to fully support the investigation. The company said it was unable to predict the impact these actions will have on the issues relating to this matter, including, but not limited to, a possible adverse affect on business performance in the future. Therefore, the company said it will not reassess at this time the dividend policy and revised sales and earnings forecast for fiscal year 2007 announced on September 19.
In April 2003, this SRAM business was spun off and transferred to Renesas Technology Corp., one of the Mitsubishi Electric's affiliated companies in which Mitsubishi Electric Corp. holds a 45 percent interest.
Scandal in the DRAM industry reached a fever pitch this summer, when eight DRAM manufacturers and their subsidiaries were accused of price-fixing in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan by the New York State Attorney General's office. The lawsuit was part of a coordinated effort with 33 other states to crack down on the DRAM market.
