Oracle, guarding its Sun server,storage and workstation franchises, filed legal action against Micron, charging the company with price fixing over a span of about five years.

Conspiracy Theory

Between 1998 and 2002, Sun purchased in excess of $2 billion worth of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) from Micron and other suppliers, in addition to the millions of dollars for DRAM that came installed in its finished products. DRAM is commonly used in servers of all types for boot-up and other purposes. It can also be used in solid-state drives (SSDs).

Oracle claimed in the lawsuit that Micron conspired with several other companies, including Samsung, Hynix and Infineon, to control the price of DRAM in its sales to systems makers, including Sun.

Oracle is seeking unspecified damages as well as restitution, or “disgorgement”, of revenue and earnings, court costs and interest, according to court documents.

In June, six memory-chip companies, including Micron, agreed to pay $173 million plus interest to 33 US states and to private class-action plaintiffs to settle similar litigation.

In May, the European Commission got involved, fining these memory companies a total of €331 million. Samsung paid the highest sum of €145.7 million. At the time, a whistleblower at Micron revealed the scheme to regulators and Micron was not fined by the EC.

The Oracle litigation reinstitutes action against Micron and is a spin-off separate from a US Department of Justice (DoJ) investigation. In 2005, Samsung pleaded guilty to price fixing in the United States and paid a $300 million fine to the DoJ in settlement.