Samsung working to acquire SanDisk

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics Co is pursuing an acquisition of US computer memory card maker SanDisk Corp, a South Korean online business newspaper reported on Friday.

Samsung neither confirmed nor denied the report. "We are considering various opportunities regarding SanDisk but nothing has been decided," Samsung spokesman James Chung said. He did not elaborate.

The online paper e-daily said on its Web site that Samsung chose JPMorgan as an adviser for the acquisition about one month ago, citing investment banking and semiconductor industry officials it did not identify.

Chung said that Samsung currently supplies NAND flash memory chips to SanDisk, which is based in Milpitas, California.

Samsung is the world's largest manufacturer of NAND as well as DRAM, or dynamic random access memory.

NAND flash memory is used in digital devices such as cameras and music players. DRAM chips are used mostly in personal computers.