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Report: Oracle sues Micron over chip pricing

Oracle sues Micron Technology, alleging that the chipmaker overcharged Sun Microsystems for memory chips and conspired to fix prices.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers

Oracle has sued Micron Technology, alleging the chipmaker overcharged Sun Microsystems for memory chips, according to a report.

Micron and other manufacturers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) "artificially inflated" the price of chips, according to an Oracle complaint filed Friday in federal court in San Jose, Calif., Bloomberg reported.

The Oracle suit is based on DRAM sales made to Sun. Oracle acquired Sun in January.

While other companies, such as Hynix Semiconductor and Samsung Electronics, are cited as "co-conspirators," they're not named as defendants.

The origin of the case goes back to a 2002 U.S. Justice Department investigation of memory chip price fixing, the Bloomberg report said. At that time, Micron cooperated with the U.S. government, which did not bring legal action against Micron.

Micron, when contacted, would not comment.

Memory chipmakers "conspired to control production capacity, raise prices...and otherwise unlawfully overcharge their DRAM customers," Oracle said in its complaint, according to Bloomberg.