SiliconBeat

Rambus is set to get about $349 million from Hynix Semiconductor based on a “final judgement” rendered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Tuesday.

Hynix was also ordered to pay the Los Altos chip designer royalties on Read the rest of this entry »

Rambus, the litigious Los Altos chip designer, is the subject of a New York Times story Monday that begins with the efforts over the last two years of Craig Hampel, the company’s senior engineer, to “design the next leap in memory chip technology,” a way to allow computers to display complex graphics even faster.

However, the bulk of the article, by Laurie Flynn (a former Merc colleague who edited our computing section back in the day) is focused on the company’s efforts to translate patent litigation victories into better returns for its shareholders as well as the ill will generated Read the rest of this entry »

Rambus, the Los Altos chip designer, said it will eliminate 90 jobs between now and the end of the year, leaving it with a workforce of about 340 employees, according to a regulatory filing Thursday.

“This is a difficult but appropriate adjustment that will position us to succeed in our strategic objectives,” said Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer at Rambus. “These steps will enable us to Read the rest of this entry »

Rambus said it intends to “reduce our current cost structure through actions which may include downsizing our workforce” after reporting a 25 percent drop in sales for its second quarter compared with the year-before quarter, according to its earnings release this afternoon.

The company’s net loss ballooned to Read the rest of this entry »

The fact that Rambus (ticker:RMBS), the Los Altos chip company, awarded bonuses to its executives in 2007 normally wouldn’t be noteworthy given their puny sizes by Silicon Valley standards.

In an 8-K filed Tuesday, the company disclosed that it gave CEO and President Harold Hughes (at right) a bonus of $168,000. Satish Rishi, chief financial officer, only got $90,000. Bottom line: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison sold more stock Tuesday than the top seven executives at Rambus collected in bonus money last year.
 

What caught our eye, however, was that the company said it awarded the bonuses even though the company didn’t meet the ”adjusted pre-tax income target” it had set for executives to receive bonuses. The filing notes that “the Compensation Committee approved the discretionary funding of the Incentive Plan at 40% of the pre-approved target level for fiscal year 2007.”

Why? The filing explains that the committee considered other factors such as market conditions and “increased litigation expenses.”

Indeed, it’s been a hard year for poor Rambus. It lost a big ruling by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. It settled an investor lawsuit over mis-priced stock options.

Sounds bonus-worthy to us.

Rambus, the Los Los Altos chip designer that knows its way around a courtroom after years of asserting and defending its intellectual property, decided to settle an investor lawsuit related to misdated stock options. In a press release filed with the SEC Friday it said it would pay $18 million in return for a dismissal “”with prejudice” of all claims against the defendants from a lawsuit filed in July 2006.

Rambus said it is continuing discussions with its insurers regarding their contribution of a portion of the settlement claims.

Last month, Rambus ex-chairman Geoff Tate and three other executives settled legal claims brought against them on behalf of the company by agreeing to pay Rambus $6.5 million.

Rambus has been unable to file full financial reports with the SEC since May 2006 as it
determines the extent of the restatements. Last October the company said it incorrectly dated stock options and estimated it would have to take more than $200 million in charges in connection with the grants.

The delay also means that insiders at the company have been unable to sell any shares in the meantime. In the first few months of 2006 alone, ten Rambus insiders exercised and sold more than 2.8 million shares, netting $63 million according to Thomson Financial.