SANDISK Corp, the world's largest maker of memory cards used in digital cameras, surged as much as 59 percent in German trading after Samsung Electronics Co made a US$5.85 billion hostile bid for the company.

SanDisk jumped as much as US$8.91 to the equivalent of US$23.95 in Frankfurt trading from the close of US$15.04 in Nasdaq trading yesterday.

Samsung, the world's second-largest chip maker, offered US$26 in cash for each SanDisk share, 73 percent more than the memory-card maker's closing price in the United States. SanDisk rejected the offer.

A purchase would give South Korea-based Samsung semiconductor patents held by California-based SanDisk and help widen its lead over Toshiba Corp in the US$15-billion market for flash-memory chips.

The unsolicited offer signals Samsung's increased appetite for acquisitions after Lee Yoon Woo, 62, became chief executive officer in May. "This aggressiveness is definitely a departure from the Samsung of the past decade," said Kim Hyun Wook, a fund manager at KB Asset Management Co in Seoul, which has the equivalent of US$2.6 billion in equities.

"Toshiba probably doesn't have the spare money to challenge Samsung to a bidding war." Samsung closed at 525,000 won (US$470.6) on the Korea Exchange yesterday, unchanged from Tuesday.

Samsung publicly disclosed its offer after receiving a September 15 rejection letter from SanDisk CEO Eli Harari, ending four months of discussions. The South Korean company continues to seek a "mutually agreeable" deal, Lee said.

SanDisk said its board unanimously rejected Samsung's offer as too low. Samsung initially indicated it would pay a "significant" premium to the US$28.75-a-share price on May 22, when it first approached SanDisk.