Samsung quits SanDisk takeover try

Samsung said (subscription required) late Thursday that it was no longer pursuing a buyout of SanDisk. The revelation comes nearly a year after Samsung put its plans on hold following SanDisk's rejection of a $5.8 billion bid and four months after the two agreed to license each other's patents and ultimately avoid what had prompted the purchase offer.

Calling off the attempt ends what had been seen as a possibly seismic change in the flash memory business. Samsung and SanDisk are already two of the largest producers of the mass storage technology and combined would have had a clear majority of the industry to the combined entity.

It would have especially created a ripple effect in the market for the NAND flash used by many phones, media players and solid-state drives. As SanDisk often makes end products like its Sansa players using its own flash, a Samsung acquisition might have resulted either in having much larger economies of scale for these devices or else the end to one or more devices entirely. A rival like Apple is also one of Samsung's largest customers for flash memory and might have had access to SanDisk's memory technology for iPhones and iPods.

By Electronista Staff