Oh, these multi-billion dollar companies and their flings! I thought they would have made such a cute match, too. Actually, probably not, but still. Was Samsung’s game just not good enough? Was SanDisk playing a little too hard to get?
Romantic conceits aside, it looks like SanDisk just wasn’t willing to give in and give up control of such a strong brand to the beast that is Samsung. They held out after rejecting the offer initially, and now Samsung is walking away, too. SanDisk would rather sell off some expensive assets and introduce some bad-ass new products to invigorate the company than become another head of the Samsung hydra. SanDisk doing it for herself!
Check out the whole release — plus saucy letter — after the jump.
Samsung Withdraws Proposal to Acquire SanDisk
SEOUL, South Korea–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Samsung Electronics (“Samsung”) (005930:KS) today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of SanDisk Corporation (“SanDisk”) (NASDAQ: SNDK) for $26 per share in cash. The full text of Samsung’s letter to SanDisk’s Board of Directors withdrawing its proposal follows:
October 22, 2008
Board of Directors
SanDisk Corporation
601 McCarthy Boulevard
Milpitas, CA 95035Attention: Dr. Eli Harari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Irwin Federman, Vice Chairman and Lead Independent DirectorDear Eli and Irwin:
After nearly six months of efforts to pursue a transaction with no meaningful progress, we are withdrawing our proposal to acquire SanDisk. I am disappointed that we have been unable to reach an agreement on our proposal. I continue to believe that a combination of our two companies would have created a superior global brand, an unparalleled technology platform and the scale and resources to drive convergence in the marketplace. Had we been able to execute on our proposal, your shareholders would have received full, fair and certain value for their shares and your employees and other stakeholders would have benefited from a broader platform and a wider range of opportunities.
Nevertheless, we have obligations to our own shareholders which require that we take a disciplined approach, particularly with respect to significant initiatives such as this. That disciplined approach requires that we squarely face the growing uncertainties in your business, which may continue to deteriorate in this difficult economic environment and further impact your standalone value. Your recently announced third quarter results serve only to illustrate this risk. Your surprise announcements of a quarter billion dollar operating loss, a hurried renegotiation of your relationship with Toshiba and major job losses across your organization all point to a considerable increase in your risk profile and a material deterioration in value, both on a stand-alone basis as well as to Samsung. As a result of these developments, we are no longer interested in acquiring SanDisk at $26/share.
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.
Sincerely,
Yoon Woo Lee
Vice Chairman & CEO
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
What — is the image too much? Probably, yeah.