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Technology Stocks : Spansion Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: neolib who wrote (4387)	1/1/2009 4:25:42 PM
From: Plissken	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4590

Samsung is one of the top 3 NOR flash makers and would hold in excess of 60% of the world market on the memory type if they were to buy Spansion. That would certainly require regulatory approval in virtually all markets where NOR flash is sold to. "All else" would be Numonyx and some speciality makers with less than 2% share each. A potential solution for Spansion regarding the IP issue vs bankruptcy might be a transfer of all rights into a wholly owned subsidiary company that only deals with IP and licensing. That company could then be used to raise money or be sold as is in case of the parent going bust without the trouble of disentangling the fab/production portion from it. Such readiness might compel Samsung to settle as well since it would be somewhat reasonable that they wouldn't want it to fall, as you remarked, into the hands of patent trolls (RMBS comes to mind at that point) who could harass them for a long time to come. It may, in fact, be preferable for Samsung to pay up and keep a competitor alive to avoid that from happening. The IP could be had at an even steeper discount than currently, if Spansion went bust, after all.