Rambus stock soars on preliminary ruling

SAN FRANCISCO, April 27 (Reuters) - A judge's preliminary ruling on Monday giving the green light for chip designer Rambus (RMBS.O) to take the next step in an antitrust case sent the company's stock soaring 18.7 percent.

The stock closed at $11.80, after climbing on news of the preliminary ruling by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer.

Kramer is considering allegations by Rambus that Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), Hynix (000660.KS) and Micron Technology (MU.N) illegally fixed prices and hurt the sale of DRAM computer memory chips designed by Rambus.

The companies wanted Kramer to take into account a ruling by another judge, in Delaware. The Delaware judge threw out a Rambus patent infringement suit against Micron, after finding that Rambus destroyed documents.

But Kramer took a different view.

"The judge is basically affirming Rambus's stance that the patents aren't really involved in this trial," said Hamed Khorsandv of BWS Financial. "It's about the actions that were taken by the memory manufacturers."

Another analyst was equally pleased.

"This is positive because it removes more unknowns from Rambus and allows this trial to proceed on Sept. 28," said Jeff Schreiner of Capstone Investments.

A spokeswoman for Rambus had no comment. (Reporting by David Lawsky and Clare Baldwin, editing by Matthew Lewis)