Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Google Steam

Google may have Valve in their sights.

Samsung in Hostile Takeover Bid of Sandisk

Samsung, the massive quasi-state-owned Korean conglomerate known in the west for its LCD's and cell phones (one of their lesser known offerings pictured here), has made a hostile takeover bid for Sandisk at $26 a share, which is quite a premium.

Samsung's been making moves on the smaller firm for some time now, and the answer has been a consistent 'no.' Guess they got sick of playing nice. Word down the grapevine is that compared to previous similar situations, it's likely that this deal will start out on the hostile path, but some loose pockets on Samsung's part may well make things consentual. The big hurtle will be regulators, but the fact that Samsung is behaving so aggressively at this point indicates that they are determined to engulf Sandisk, or in the very least, make any rival acquisitions that much more costly.

Sandisk seems doomed at this point. One interesting point is that this move by Samsung may escalate its faceoff with Intel, which has a demonstrated record of backing DRAM companies with cash against the Korean firm.

Sandisk makes...stuff. USB keys, hard drives, etc., is all that really comes to mind. They're all about the semis. Their one brand name that I remember for some reason is a tacky budget MP3 player called the Sandisk Sansa.

Guess that makes Samsung Littlefinger GET IT?!!?1