SAN FRANCISCO — With great fanfare, plaintiffs sent out press releases Thursday to announce a $173 million settlement in a class action over computer memory chips.

But they could have had more than $100 million more if they had settled earlier.

Back in 2006, a collection of defendant chip companies were ready to cut a check for $295 million, according to lawyers familiar with the talks. But a divided group of plaintiffs representing indirect purchasers of DRAM computer memory rejected the offer, thinking they could get more money down the road. Some of the hardliners who opposed the settlement included various state attorneys general, but not California, these lawyers said.

Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, continued litigation did not improve their leverage, as U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton decimated their case in a series of pretrial rulings. They appealed to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, but called that off when the defendant companies — including Infineon Technologies, Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. — agreed to the lower figure.

A spokesman for California Attorney General Jerry Brown was not immediately available to comment Friday.