Seoul - US memory card maker SanDisk Corp has rejected Samsung Electronics Co's hostile 5.85-billion-dollar takeover bid, calling it "inadequate."

In a statement released after the markets closed Tuesday in the United States, the Milpitas, California-based SanDisk said its board unanimously decided against the South Korean electronic giant's 26-dollar-per-share offer because it "significantly undervalues SanDisk given the long-term prospects of its business."

Samsung retorted Wednesday that its 26-dollar-per-share cash offer represented a premium of 80 per cent of Monday's stock price and SanDisk "continues to cling to unrealistic expectations on both its standalone market value and an appropriate merger price."

Seoul - Shares nosedived Tuesday on the Seoul stock exchange, sending the benchmark Kospi Index down more than 6 per cent, as the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank in the US caused panic among inve

Seoul - Share

Seoul - South Korea's state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) said Wednesday that it had abandoned talks about acquiring a stake in the ailing US investment bank Lehman Brothers.

"Korea Development Bank has stopped negotiations with Lehman Brothers because of differences over the conditions of a transaction," a KDB spokesman said in Seoul.

The decision was also made in consideration of the financial markets at home and abroad, he added.

Jun Kwang Woo, chairman of South Korea's Financial Services Commission, called on KDB Monday to be cautious over a Lehman Brothers deal in regards to the bank's privatization plans.

Seoul - Shares surged more than 5 per cent Monday on the Seoul Stock Exchange as investor sentiment was boosted by the US government decision to bail out struggling mortgage giants Fannie Mae and

Beijing - Envoys from South Korea and Japan discussed North Korea's nuclear weapons programme on Friday, amid uncertainty over whether Pyongyang is preparing to reassemble key facilities.

Officials said US chief negotiator Christopher Hill would hold trilateral talks with the South Korean and Japanese envoys on the nuclear programme on Friday evening.