Samsung says it's absolutely not pursuing SanDisk any longer, just listening to Blood on the Tracks for no reason
By Nilay Patel 
posted Sep 5th 2009 11:51PM
posted Sep 5th 2009 11:51PM
Not sure why Samsung felt the need to reassure investors and the SEC that it's no longer pursuing SanDisk after its buyout offer was withdrawn back in November, but here we are, reading about it in the Wall Street Journal. Apparently the two companies signed a patent-licensing agreement in May, so we'd imagine that's kept lines of communication open -- but we have to warn you, Sammy: getting off that friends ladder ain't exactly easy. Maybe it's time to move on, you know?
haha nice logo, that made me real life lol.
yeah
lol I laughing am hard so that I type can't normal.
lol;) That's hilarious
am I missing something, I dont find that funny at all... I mean not even remotely.
leave San Disk alone, you're big enough!
Samsung should've pursued ARM holdings instead. I believe it is vital that they buy out a company to survive. On that note, Palm would have been a good choice too since their Palm OS seem promising with a few tweeks and tie-ups with retailers
I don't quite follow -- you're recommending that Samsung have to buy out another company to survive? Are you aware that Samsung alone represent 25% of South Korea's GDP? Their revenue is in excess of $175bn annually and net income is over $14 billion. They are a lot, lot bigger than you think (total assets = over $300 billion).
Palm on the other hand had negative $736 million revenue last FY and made a net income of negative $732 million dollars. If Samsung like their money and profit, they would stay away from Palm (at least for now). The Palm OS, however good it may be, is an ant compared to Samsung's vast enterprise.
ARM at least, seem to be making some money - but Samsung is probably happy enough licensing their IP for now.
I might come off like a Samsung fan boy, I'm not - but the sheer magnitude of this company cannot be understated.
@Daza as a Korean, i'm pretty well aware of Samsung's prominence. But if you think about it, low operating margin has been Samsung's chronic problem. Samsung's been trying to relieve that pressure by buying out a company that holds much of the license that they use one of them being Sandisk.
But, the current memory chip market will become more and more crowded and we'll see more chicken games in the future. Taiwan has consolidated its memory chip companies and the newly consolidated company is getting their semiconductor tech from Elpida.
This chicken game will become more and more prevalent not only in the DRAM market,but also in the NAND memory sector. Toshiba, Panasonic, and NEC are consolidating their business to improve efficiency.
The only two companies that make money in the memory chip market are Samsung and Hynix both of which are based in Korea. But they have razor thin profit margins. Any price fluctuation in the memory market due to supply will throw their margins off.
I believe Samsung should slowly move away from the memory chip market in order to improve profit margin and that's why I recommended ARM to be a good fit. Of course, Sandisk would be very nice since they hold key patent assets.
Yes, Samsung is a behemoth in terms of revenue in the cell phone market. It trails just behind Nokia. However, when we look at the profit margin, it's actually apple that holds 30% of the mkt share in terms of profit margin. Samsung's been churning out phones like crazy, but its profit margin will not improve without a consistent strategy for cell phones.
Samsung's smart phones like the Omnia, and the Jet look nice and they both have great hardware, but they lack software synergy. I think Palm might have been able to supplement that. Especially since they were on the cheap when the talks broke down with Sandisk in October 2008. Also, the fact that Nokia's been trying to revamp their cell phone O.S. in house than outsourcing by purchasing symbian presents a stronger case.
if you've read this far, i really appreciate you reading all the way through.
I did read all the way through, very interesting points - thanks for the reply jn. I agree with the points you've raised too, it would be a good idea to obtain some IP/patents as demand for ARM isn't decreasing at all.
A better name would have been SanSung...