WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Elpida Memory Inc. has agreed to plead guilty and pay an $84 million fine for participating in an international conspiracy to fix prices of dynamic random access memory devices between 1999 and 2002, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday.

With court approval of the Elpida plea bargain, the department will make similar agreements with NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., it said. The two electronics companies established Elpida in 1999 by spinning off and merging their DRAM divisions.

NEC and Hitachi are to share the cost of the fine, with NEC paying $46.75 million and Hitachi $27.75 million.