there goes a quality mp3 player.

I don't see how this buyout would get past any decent anti-monopoly laws, so it would work in the US but not in korea surely?

Maybe Sandisk will let this rumor float just to keep their stock price up until the flash market recovers. Their stock price and others in the flash market have taken a beating over the last few months which happens cyclically with memory companies anyway but the added pressure of the broad economic slowdown made the slide quite steep.

I agree with sigher though, this buyout would have some big regulatory hurdles to overcome.

Flash products are commodities so I don't really care about that aspect of Sandisk's product line in terms of possible purchases. If something like this does go through though it will be interesting to see what happens to Sandisk's DAP line. Starting with the Clip they began to make that I'd actually be interested in because they rise above the generic player mire but are still priced reasonably. Heck they even updated the Clip firmware to add .ogg support which is a pretty big addition that is unusual in the DAP world. Samsung's DAPs tend to be in the expensive part of the market and maybe have more features but not always those that would make them compelling buys and thus aren't great value propositions. It could go one of two ways then, either the Sansa brand is kept as a lower-end player along the current lines or they get phased out altogether or maybe made into a rebadging brand.

I'm waiting to hear Uber's take on this.

First Seagate, now Samsung, must be nice to be so coveted....
http://storage.itproportal.com/articles/2008/08/15/rumour-mill-seag...

I've read in the papers that this acquisition could save them $400-500 million in licensefees/royalties alone. Sounds intriguing.

I knew there was a deal floating around, the 4GB Clip is $50 with free shipping on buy.com. I always prefer to play the waiting game with electronics unless I truly need something, buying based on this rumor is kind of silly but the Clip is about perfect for an ultracompact DAP, it would be absolutely perfect if it had a micro SDHC slot. Hmm have to decide now..

yet another buyout/acquisition. what is it with this trend lately.

samsung = poon. Ge (the parent company) = crap