Chinese-owned Montage Technology is being investigated by the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice on suspicion of price fixing of semiconductor components, MLex has learned.
Chinese-owned Montage Technology is being investigated by the US Department of Justice's Antitrust Division on suspicion of price fixing of semiconductor components, MLex has learned.The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Service's Office of Inspector General executed a search warrant on the company's Silicon Valley premises in California on Jan. 13, it is understood.
Shanghai-based Montage Technology is an integrated circuit, or IC, design company that provides high-performance, low-power IC products for cloud computing and data center markets. Founded in 2004, the fabless semiconductor provider specializes in memory interface solutions for dual in-line memory modules, or DIMMs. These are used in servers, data centers and client devices.
While Montage is not a direct manufacturer of dynamic random access memory chips, or DRAM, it provides the critical logic components such as registering clock drivers, data buffers and power management ICs that make modern high-speed DIMMs work. It is not clear which semiconductor components specifically the DOJ's antitrust enforcers have concerns about.
Search warrants were also executed on certain employees of the company, it is understood.
A spokesperson for the DOJ's Antitrust Division declined to comment.
"Per FBI policy I'm unable to confirm or deny an investigation," a spokesperson for the FBI's field office in Los Angeles told MLex.
Spokespersons for the USPS Office of Inspector General and Montage Technology did not respond to requests for comment.
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