Rambus reports record revenue

But 'challenge' to forecast future

Rambus last night reported net income of $5.4m (five cents a share) on sales of $40m for the three months to 30 June 2005.

The memory technology developer and serial litigator's second quarter revenues were up one percentage point sequentially and up 14 per cent over the year ago quarter's total. Rambus heralded the figure as a quarterly revenue record-breaker, the second in succession.

New contracts contributed $5.4m to the $40m revenue, down 18 per cent on the previous quarter although one percentage point up on Q2 FY2004. The reason for the decline: fewer new deals for the company's XDR memory and FlexIO technologies now that the initial big deals with companies developing products around the Cell processor come to a conclusion, Rambus said.

Royalty revenues were up 17 per cent year on year and five per cent sequentially, the gains coming from growing SDRAM and DDR royalty payments, the company added.

The quarter's net income was up 22.7 per cent sequentially, but down 34.9 per cent year on year.

Rambus spent $34.4m in costs and expenses during the quarter, up from $24.4m in Q2 FY2004. More than half of that increase - $5.2m - arose from the company's legal activity, already a big cost centre. During the quarter, Rambus launched legal proceedings against Samsung, alleging its XDR licensing partner had separately infringed dozens of patents it holds that it maintains are central to the way DDR 2 memory devices operate.

Rambus did not provide guidance for Q3 or Q4's sales and earnings, stating that "the second half of the year is a challenge to forecast given the number of patent license agreements and renewals we are currently negotiating". ®

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