Last month, Samsung officially expressed in an open letter its intentions of buying flash memory manufacturer SanDisk, thus placing an offer for the latter to analyze. Samsung offered $26 per share, which, based on SanDisk's share total of approximately 225 million, would have raised the value of the transaction to more than $5.8 billion. Unfortunately for Samsung, the offer was immediately turned down, on claims that it did not reflect the true value of the company in question.

 

On that note, Toshiba was recently reported to have started talks for a possible purchase of SanDisk's manufacturing facilities. The news was somewhat unexpected, as Toshiba had previously stated that it had no interest in acquiring SanDisk, which had been one if its partners for several years in a row. In the meantime, however, the company seemed to have had a change of heart and, according to several Nikkei reports, had decided to purchase SanDisk’s portion of its facilities.

 

In response to the recent developments, Samsung has officially withdrawn its proposal to acquire SanDisk, claiming that the manufacturer’s current financial status represents a serious financial risk for it. In addition, in a letter that Samsung sent to the SanDisk board of directors, the South Korean company also mentioned that the recently reported negations between SanDisk and Toshiba, as well as the major job cuts across the organization, were all factors that weighed heavily in its decision of withdrawing the offer for SanDisk.

“While I regret that we were unable to work together to achieve a business combination that would have created new opportunities for all of us, we wish you the best in meeting the challenges ahead,” said Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics, Yoon Woo Lee.

 

SanDisk recently reported a 21 percent loss in Q3, with a revenue of $821 million. The drop reflects SanDisk's current financial situation, which has also been influenced by the worldwide slow economy.