Rambus Inc lost and was awarded no damages in an antitrust trial in which it accused Micron Technology Inc and Hynix Semiconductor Inc of conspiring to prevent Rambus's computer memory technology from becoming the industry standard.

The verdict read in court on Wednesday came after a three-month trial in state court and following more than eight weeks of jury deliberations.

Rambus attorneys had argued that South Korea's Hynix and Idaho-based Micron colluded to fix prices of memory chips used in personal computers and to prevent Rambus's technology from becoming widely used. Rambus claimed the deal cost it up to $4.38 billion in lost profits.

Micron and Hynix countered that Rambus's chip technology was plagued by technical problems and that the company blames competitors for its own failure.

A large award could have dramatically changed the fortunes of Rambus, which was worth about $2 billion in stock market value on Wednesday.

Trading in shares of Rambus and Micron were halted pending news ahead of the verdict. Rambus was up 1.83 percent at $18.37 and Micron was up 4.4 percent at $5.70 before trading stopped.

The case in Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco is Rambus Inc. v. Micron Technology Inc. et al, 04-431105.

Court California South Korea California