Rambus Meltdown – Does Value Exist?

Rambus' shares fell 10.19% yesterday bringing its three consecutive trading day loss to 31.6%. Shares began plummeting on Friday as news emerged that a US Appeals court had agreed the company wrongfully destroyed documents relevant to patent infringement cases involving Hynix and Micron. While these rulings were certainly bad news for Rambus there are a few interesting things worth noting: First, neither case was thrown out by the appeals court. Instead Friday's decisions vacated earlier rulings and sent them back to lower courts for reconsideration. While this is a big setback for Rambus it in no way precludes Rambus from collecting on these patents. Second, involves the appeals court decision to vacate the lower court ruling in Rambus' case with Micron. The lower court had already ruled against Rambus on grounds it destroyed documents. Sending the case back to the lower court open the case for reconsideration that destruction was not serious enough for the case to have been originally thrown out. While Friday's decision is unlikely to change the lower courts original decision it does however keep this case open and live. This being said, I am in no way saying the....