With demand in the NAND industry down thanks to an oversupply of NAND on the market and a general softness in the technology industry, NAND makers are feeling the pinch. SanDisk is one of the firms that is seeing drastically lower stock prices and has rumors of a takeover swirling about.
We know SanDisk is interested in being sold, as evidenced by the ongoing talks it has had with Samsung about a purchase. SanDisk's board unanimously turned down the Samsung offer which represented a 93% premium on SanDisk's stock price. SanDisk feels that Samsung is trying to take advantage of its depressed stock, while Samsung maintains that SanDisk has unrealistic expectations given the current market. Many outside the two companies feel that SanDisk is channeling a bit of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang in its negotiations.
The SanDisk acquisition saga may be over for Samsung (for now), but according to eWeek, the potential list of buyers for SanDisk has increased. Tom Coughlin of Coughlin Associates told eWeek, "Once the word gets out there that a good company like SanDisk is having trouble and might be available, this kind of thing happens. It's going to be interesting to see what will actually take place."
New names thrown into ring as suitors for SanDisk include Intel and Seagate. According to eWeek, Intel was a name mentioned as a possibility but it seems that rumor has little weight at this time. The more likely buyer of SanDisk would be Seagate. Seagate already holds the title of world's largest hard drive maker. Seagate CEO Bill Watkins has publically said that he wasn't interested in adding SanDisk to the Seagate portfolio.
Analysts in the industry disagree with Watkins though. Coughlin added that, "It would make good sense for Seagate, at least from where I stand. Seagate wants to be a major NAND flash player. They don't have access to the [Far East] fab plants, as SanDisk does. They also don't have the patents that SanDisk does. It's strictly speculation, of course, but I think it's a possibility."