Rambus EU Settlement Appears Near

“The story goes on to state that the regulators are expected to
announce next Wednesday that they will accept without change the
terms offered last June by Rambus. If this is confirmed, Rambus
will agree to cap its royalties at 1.5 percent to 2.65 percent per
unit for identified types of SDR memory controllers and memory
types for five years, beginning in 2010.

“If the settlement is announced as anticipated, U.S. regulators
may wonder whether their brethren across the pond are better poker
players than they are.

“In fairness to the attorneys at the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC), the regulatory body that led the effort in the U.S., it is
not really possible to make direct comparisons between prosecutions
in different jurisdictions. As I noted in an earlier post when
Rambus offered its settlement terms, the antitrust laws,
prosecutorial powers, and political background all vary from one
situation to the other.

“As I’ve reported over the years, the FTC vigorously pursued
Rambus, alternately winning and losing – but never settling. The
FTC’s luck ran out when Rambus won the final round in the federal
court system shy of the court of last appeal – and the Supreme
Court declined to take the case.”

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