Sony says electronics unit in U.S. is under antitrust probe

Sony Corp. said Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department is investigating its electronics unit for possible antitrust violations.

Sony received a subpoena from the Justice Department's antitrust division seeking information about its static random access memory, or SRAM, business, company spokesman Atsuo Omagari said.

Sony said it is cooperating with the investigation, which it described as industrywide, without elaborating. Omagari declined to provide further details about the probe.

SRAM is a type of computer memory that is faster and more reliable that DRAM, or dynamic random access memory. It does not need to be refreshed like DRAM and is more expensive.

Personal computers use a relatively small amount of SRAM. In 2005, Sony's sales of SRAM memory chips totaled 3.3 billion yen. The product is made by outside manufacturers for Sony, which in turn sells the chips to other electronics makers, Omagari said.

He would not say who manufactures the chips or who Sony's customers were.