LOS ALTOS, Calif. -- A surge in DRAM-related royalties pushed Rambus Inc.'s net revenues to a record $34.7 million in the company's first fiscal quarter, ended Dec. 31. Rambus' revenues were 191% higher than $11.9 million in the same quarter a year ago, and 29% above the prior three-month period.
Rambus said the results included the initial royalties for patents covering synchronous DRAMs, double data rate (DDR) memories and related controllers from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. Rambus began a licensing campaign to collect extra royalties on those patents from DRAM makers last summer. So far, seven companies signed licensing pacts, but Infineon, Hyundai, and Micron are fighting Rambus in its attempts to collect those royalties.
Rambus' net income in the just-ended quarter reached $13.2 million compared to $2.6 million in the period a year ago. The company posted a net income of $10.2 million on revenues of $26.9 million in the fiscal quarter ended Sept. 31, 2000.
Rambus CEO Geoff Tate said the company was confident that market growth for Sony Corp. PlayStation2 systems and computers based on Intel Corp. Pentium 4 processors will increase demand for Rambus DRAMs. The RDRAMs continue to battle DDR memories in PC and other computer market segments.
Tate said an increasing percentage of Rambus revenues comes from new royalties on SDRAM-compatible ICs. "With the price decrease for SDRAMs in the December quarter, it is unlikely that royalties for these products in our next quarter will exceed the levels included in this report, unless we sign additional licensees," cautioned the chief executive officer.
Rambus also has recently moved into a new, larger headquarters facility in Los Altos, which is expected to increase the company's costs. Ongoing legal battles are also likely to add to Rambus' costs this year, said Tate.
