Toshiba profit drop could scupper expected SanDisk approach

Toshiba is looking less likely to make a rival bid for SanDisk to try and get the flash memory specialist in the place of Samsung.

Samsung has made a bid and had it rejected but there were expectations that Toshiba would also try and table an offer.

But following Friday’s announcement that Toshiba was expected to make an operating loss of Y30bn ($280m) for its first half of the year, compared with the Y70bn profit it had forecasted in April, has knocked the company’s ability to make acquisitions.

According to reports in the Financial Times the company is concentrating its efforts on turning round its own performance.

The SanDisk bidding war was started by Samsung after the largest Nand flash manufacturer tabled an $5.85bn bid. At the close of last week shares in SanDisk soared amid expectations that Samsung woudld follo-up its orginal offer with a higher price.