Three executives from Samsung pleaded guilty to price fixing in the memory chip market. The execs will serve 7-8 months in jail and pay fines of $250,000 each. (Samsung earlier agreed to a $300M fine.) There’s nothing like a little jail time to impact white collar behavior, even if they won’t exactly be going to San Quentin.
You have to ask “Why?” Sure, there are tremendous pressures in the memory business, and the industry has a history of boom and bust cycles and self-inflicted pricing wounds, but there are effective, legal mechanisms to encourage good industry pricing.