Samsung considers SanDisk: looking to grow PMP share or just trying to save money?
A recent online report, later confirmed by the company, suggests that Samsung is looking to buy SanDisk, known for its memory and music player products.
It’s not clear exactly what Samsung’s motives are, with the official statement simply stating “We are looking at various opportunities regarding SanDisk (NSDQ: SNDK), but nothing has been decided yet.”
It could be that Samsung wants to build upon its YP Series of PMPs, get a piece of the SanDisk PMP pie, or simply that it would like to pay less (or nothing at all) in ongoing licensing fees for NAND and DRAM flash chips — it currently shells out around $353.8m each year.
SanDisk is currently placed second (albeit by a country mile) behind Apple in market share for MP3 players, with around 11% at the beginning of the year. Samsung barely registers on the chart.
No deal has been done yet, and it doesn’t look good for Samsung. Apparently, deals between companies that start with the same letter never come to anything — Seagate looked to buying a piece of SanDisk but it never happened.
(Via Paid Content)
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