More bad news for Sony this year, the Department of Justice has named the company as another to be probed for accusations of price fixing. So far, a total of five companies have been named in the probe, which seeks to discover if prices of SRAM were artificially inflated. Being that SRAM is an older technology and not as widely used as DRAM, and given its overall low cost, some are puzzled by this action:
DeVoss said he was puzzled by the widening probe, saying any pricing shenanigans would likely have little impact on consumers because of the small market size and relatively low selling prices for most types of SRAM. "Unless there's something really, really, really wrong, I think this is a tempest in a teapot," he said. "I don't think consumers are being affected that much, simply because the business is too small."
Samsung, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric and Cypress Semiconductor are all in the same boat as Sony. The whole ordeal seems to have started with complaints from companies worried about being overcharged for high-end networking components, where SRAM is more likely to be found.