Seoul prosecutors swept into the Korean offices of Chinese chipmaker Montage Technology on July 15 as part of a broad antitrust investigation into alleged price-fixing in the memory interface chip market. The raid wasn’t a solo affair. Authorities also searched local offices of Japan’s Renesas Electronics and US-based Rambus on the same day.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office’s Fair Trade Investigation Division is examining whether the three companies colluded on pricing strategies that may have benefited major memory producers including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron.
The fallout was immediate
Montage Technology’s share price cratered by roughly 20-23% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange following news of the raids.
Montage holds what’s reported to be the largest share of the memory interface chip market. Memory interface chips are the connective tissue that allows memory modules to communicate with the rest of a computer system.
