Time was when SanDisk, the world’s biggest supplier of flash storage cards, was one of the hottest tech stocks this side of the Milky Way. Of course, those also were the days when companies like Lehman and Merrill Lynch were living large on Wall Street.

These days SanDisk is hardly the high-flying company it was a couple of years ago. Against a backdrop of weakening consumer demand and with flash memory prices falling, SanDisk’s stock has reflected the company’s changing fortunes, plummeting from a 52-week high of $55.98 to finish at $15.04 on Tuesday. It’s not just SanDisk feeling the pinch; five of the seven top flash memory producers suffered declines or flat sales during the second quarter.

But after the close of trading Tuesday, Samsung Electronics confirmed earlier rumors and disclosed it had made a unsolicited $5.8 billion cash offer to buy SanDisk after what it said were four months of inconclusive talks. SanDisk was quick to rebuff the offer as inadequate.

In after-hours trading, shares of SanDisk soared to nearly $23 a share. In a statement, SanDisk rejected the $26 a share offer, arguing that it undervalues the company. That’s pretty much standard operating procedure in any negotiation, though SanDisk also charged Samsung with “an opportunistic attempt” to exploit a depressed stock price, as well as “the uncertainty resulting from the unresolved patent cross license agreement renewal with Samsung, and general equity market conditions.”

Continue Reading Here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-10043601-60.html

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Games and Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.