As tipped by ChannelNews Samsung Electronics has finally made an offer to buy SanDisk Corp. for $5.8 billion. The hostile bid if successful will place Samsung in a dominant position in the flash memory market.
According to the Wall Street Journal SanDisk, Samsung would pick up a major user of the flash memory chips used in digital storage cards, music players and cameras. As well, SanDisk holds numerous patents on flash technology for which Samsung pays several hundred million dollars in annual royalties.
In a letter to SanDisk shareholders Samsung has said that they will offer to pay $26 a share in cash for SanDisk, which is a 96% premium over the price of SanDisk shares on Sept. 5, the day we first reported that the two companies were talking.
SanDisk has said that it plans to reject the Samsung offer because it “undervalues” SanDisk, and constitutes an “opportunistic attempt” to take advantage of SanDisk’s depressed stock price.
In recent months Profits at SanDisk and other memory companies have been hammered because of excess production that has driven down prices of chips and storage. Before Samsung’s interest was disclosed, SanDisk’s stock had plunged 76% from October 2007.
