Rambus Reports First Quarter Earnings; Earnings Per Share of 4 Cents; Revenue Growth of 22% Over the First Quarter Last Year

-- Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed chip interfaces, today reported financial results for the first quarter of 2005. Earnings per share for the quarter were 4 cents, compared to 7 cents in the first quarter last year and 6 cents in the previous quarter. Net income for the first quarter was $4.4 million (11% of revenue), compared to $8.3 million in the first quarter last year and $6.5 million in the previous quarter. Revenue for the first quarter was $39.6 million, up 22% over the first quarter last year and up 3% from the previous quarter.

"Delivering record quarterly revenue is a great way to start the year," said Harold Hughes, chief executive officer at Rambus. "In addition, we made significant progress on a number of fronts this quarter, including signing new patent license agreements with Infineon and NEC Electronics. We also witnessed the strong validation of our technology by both our XDR(TM) and FlexIO(TM) high-speed interfaces being incorporated into the revolutionary Cell processor. And we continued to demonstrate leadership in innovation with our micro-threading technology for DRAM memory, which promises to make significant contributions to graphics performance in future computing and consumer electronics applications."

First quarter results reflected $6.6 million in contract revenues, up 30% over the first quarter last year and up 9% from the previous quarter. This increase primarily reflects revenues from contracts signed in 2003 for XDR memory and FlexIO interface technologies. First quarter results include $33.0 million in royalties, up 20% over the first quarter last year and up 1% from the previous quarter. The increase in royalties over the first quarter last year primarily reflects an increase in SDRAM and DDR royalties.

Total costs and expenses were $34.7 million compared with $23.9 million in the first quarter last year and $29.0 million last quarter. $7.0 million of the increase over the first quarter of last year, and $3.7 million of the increase over the previous quarter, was due to litigation expense. The remaining increases were primarily related to increased staffing and compensation costs to support current and future business opportunities.

Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities increased $224 million to $460 million since December 31, 2004. This increase was primarily a result of proceeds from the issuance and sale of $300 million in zero coupon senior convertible notes due February 1, 2010, $75 million of which was used to repurchase 4.1 million shares of common stock during the quarter, as previously reported.

The earnings announcement call will be broadcast live on our website (www.rambus.com) at 2:00 p.m. PDT today. Please log-on early if you do not already have the necessary software to listen to the call.

The conference call replay number is 888-203-1112 and the ID number is 5446227. For international callers, the number is 719-457-0820. The replay will be available on our website beginning at 5:00 p.m. PDT today.

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About Rambus

Rambus is one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in the invention and design of high-speed chip interfaces. Since its founding in 1990, the company's innovations, breakthrough technologies and integration expertise have helped industry-leading chip and system companies solve their most challenging and complex I/O problems and bring their products to market. Rambus's interface solutions can be found in numerous computing, consumer, and communications products and applications. Rambus is headquartered in Los Altos, California, with regional offices in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Bangalore, India; Taipei, Taiwan; and Tokyo, Japan. Additional information is available at www.rambus.com.