SanDisk the memory Company that got dumped by Apple late last year could be up for sale, with Samsung Western Digital and Toshiba set to be bidders.
In Australia SanDisk is gouging millions out of consumers by charging in some cases, up to double what the same SanDisk product is sold for in the USA, now the Company is struggling to grow sales as manufacturers turn to alternate memory suppliers.
Overnight the US Company reported another disappointing result with a fall in quarterly revenue, the Company whose products were dropped by Apple in favour of superior Samsung memory products said that they have been hit by a fall in demand for their products and discounting by competitors.
SanDisk’s overnight profit announcement also fell short of analysts’ estimates. The same analysts claim that SanDisk is struggling to meet demand for new NAND flash memory chips.
The company’s revenue fell nearly 12 percent in the first quarter ended March 29 to US$1.33 billion, in line with its lowered expectations and slightly topping analyst’s expectation of US$1.31 billion.
Net income fell to US$39.0 million, or 17 cents per share, from US$268.9 million, or $1.14 per share, a year earlier.
SanDisk had said in January it had lost a major customer, this Company turned out to be Apple who has switched to using solid state drives made by Samsung Electronics in its MacBook’s.
Now Samsung is having a second look at buying the struggling memory maker, for the second time after trying to buy SanDisk in 2008.
Also set to throw their hat in the ring is Toshiba who is struggling in the PC market.
Currently Samsung is investing in developing handset processor chips in-house instead of relying on other manufacturers such as Qualcomm. They are also developing a semiconductor manufacturing operation.
Recently they bid and won a contract to supply Apple with A9 chips.
By buying SanDisk the Company can expand quickly their memory manufacturing capability.
Samsung could increase its processor chip production capability due to SanDisk’s proficiency in semiconductor manufacturing. The acquisition would also allow SanDisk to expand their retail capability.
Japanese Company Toshiba who already has a relationship with SanDisk has also expressed some an interest in bidding for the struggling company.
Observers claim that a SanDisk-Samsung merger would result in complications with that relationship, indicating that Toshiba may be one of the biggest hurdles that Samsung will have to overcome if it’s serious about adding SanDisk to its stable of capable tech divisions.
Meanwhile, analysts say that another tech company waiting in the wings, hard drive manufacturer Western Digital, may end up walking off with SanDisk in the end.
A WD takeover could help the company in its aim of streamlining its NAND logic gate supply chain while also building on SanDisk’s link to Toshiba for NAND fabrication supply.
