SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, non-volatile memory technology experts. SanDisk became a publicly traded company on NASDAQ in November 1995. In October 2010 its market capitalization was US$8.9 billion. SanDisk produces many different types of flash memory, including various memory cards and a series of USB removable drives. SanDisk markets to both the high-end and low-end sector demand for premium quality flash memory, and markets to other equipment makers as well as direct to consumers.
The company is headquartered in Milpitas, California, with offices or manufacturing facilities in 10 locations in Asia (including Taiwan, China and Japan), 6 locations in Europe (including the UK, Ireland and Spain), and 3 locations in Israel (Kfar Sava, Tefen and Omer).
SanDisk is the global leader in flash memory cards, from research, manufacturing and product design to consumer branding and retail distribution. SanDisk's product portfolio includes flash memory cards for mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders; digital audio/video players; USB flash drives for consumers and the enterprise; embedded memory for mobile devices; and solid state drives for computers. SanDisk is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 company, with more than half its sales outside the United States.
SanDisk Corporation (SanDisk), incorporated in June 1988, is engaged in designing, developing and manufacturing data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. The Company operates through flash memory storage products segment. Most of its products are manufactured by combining NAND flash memory with a controller chip. The Company’s solutions include removable cards, embedded products, universal serial bus (USB) drives, digital media players, wafers and components. The removable card products are used in a range of consumer electronics devices, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, gaming devices and laptop computers. Its embedded flash products are used in mobile phones, tablets, eReaders, global positioning system, (GPS), devices, gaming systems, imaging devices and computing platforms.
The Company’s products are sold in a range of form factors, including Removable Cards, Embedded Products, USB Drives, Digital Media Players, and Wafers and Components. Its removable data storage solutions are available in a range of consumer form factors, such as its ultra-small microSD removable cards, available in capacities up to 32 gigabytes, are designed for use in mobile phones. Its CompactFlash removable cards, available in capacities up to 128 gigabytes, are suited for a range of consumer applications, including digital cameras. Its professional products include the SanDisk Ultra and SanDisk Extreme product lines. The Company’s embedded products include its iNAND embedded flash product line, with capacities up to 64 gigabytes, which is designed to respond to the increasing demand for embedded storage for mobile phones, tablets, eReaders and other portable devices. It also offers high-capacity SSDs targeted for the personal computing and server markets in capacities up to 256 gigabytes.
The Company’s Cruzer line of USB Flash Drives (UFDs) are used in the computing and consumer markets, are available in capacities up to 64 gigabytes. Its Cruzer products provide the user with the ability to carry files and application software on a portable USB drive. Its Professional and Enterprise line of UFDs are geared towards the corporate user and are specifically designed to support secure and authorized access to corporate information. Sansa is the Company’s branded line of flash-based digital media players for the digital audio and video player market. Many of its Sansa models offer a removable card slot for storage capacity expansion and transportability of content between devices. Features within its Sansa line of products include FM radio, voice recording and support for a variety of audio and video download and subscription services. Sansa media players are available in capacities up to 16 gigabytes. It also sells slotMusic and slotRadio products. It also sells raw memory wafers and memory components in packaged format.
The Company’s products are sold to mobile phones, consumer and computing markets. The Company sells its products through original equipment manufacturers customers and it sells SanDisk branded products directly or through distributors to consumer electronics stores, office superstores, photo retailers, mobile phone stores, mass merchants, catalog and mail order companies, Internet and e-commerce retailers, drug stores, supermarkets and convenience stores. The Company’s sales activities are organized into four regional territories: Americas; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Asia Pacific (APAC), and Japan.
The Company competes with Hynix, Intel, Micron, Samsung, Toshiba, A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd., Buffalo, Inc., Chips and More GmbH, Dane-Elec Memory, Eastman Kodak Company, Elecom Co., Ltd., FUJIFILM Corporation, Gemalto N.V., Hagiwara Sys-Com Co., Ltd., Hama GmbH & Co. KG, Imation Corporation, I-O Data Device, Inc., Kingmax Digital, Inc., Kingston Technology Company, Inc., Lexar, Netac Technology Co., Ltd., Panasonic, PNY Technologies, Inc., Power Quotient International Co., Ltd., RITEK Corporation, Sony, STMicroelectronics N.V., Transcend Information, Inc., Verbatim Americas LLC, STEC, Inc., OCZ Technology Group, Inc., Seagate Technology LLC, Western Digital Corporation, Apple Inc., ARCHOS Technology, Coby Electronics Corporation, Creative Technology Ltd., Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. and Microsoft Corporation.
Dr. Eli Harari, an Israeli engineer, began making early contributions to EEPROM - electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, a precursor to flash memory. Harari worked on flash memory at Intel, leaving to found a start-up which failed. In 1988, Harari launched the company that would become SanDisk with former Intel colleague Sanjay Mehrotra and former Hughes Electronics colleague Jack Yuan.
Early on, SanDisk had recognized that digital cameras would need digital storage, and computers could become ever more mobile and light and would require a similar storage technology. In 1988 Harari offered the flash memory card technology to Kodak for inclusion in their cameras. Kodak offered to fund the development with the condition that SanDisk offer a three year exclusive contract for the 'digital film'. Harari and SanDisk rejected the offer, preferring to have competition in the marketplace.
FlashCP is a digital rights management technology for the storage of electronic materials (e.g. e-books) on portable devices. FlashCP is targeted primarily at students and allows transportation of copyrighted material while enforcing copy restrictions against the user. SanDisk acquired the technology in 2005 with the purchase of Israel-based MDRM. As an avid proponent of DRM, this is one of many such technologies developed by SanDisk, the other ones being Gruvi pre-loaded memory cards and the underlying TrustedFlash technology. SanDisk media players have near universal support for Windows Media DRM and rely almost exclusively on variants of the copy-protection capable Secure Digital format for removable storage.
Currently, SanDisk manufactures one drive that uses the FlashCP technology, called the Freedom Drive, which is part of the Cruzer line. Additionally, digital content can be downloaded to Cruzer Freedom from the SanDisk Plaza, a growing online store offering digital books, music, games, and education tools. Prices for on line products vary. Many selections are free. Once downloaded, the digital content may be used online and offline.
In addition, the company has a division named SanDisk Enterprise which develops and manufactures a secure USB drive. SanDisk Enterprise was created to provide a solution for enterprises and government agencies to allow mobilization of the corporate computing environment with password protected USB flash drives. The company attempts to address the organization's risk management needs.
OVERALL
Beta: 1.74
Market Cap (Mil.): $11,291.67
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 238.37
Annual Dividend: --
Yield (%): --
FINANCIALS
SNDK.O Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 8.86 13.45 21.01
EPS (TTM): 46.04 -- --
ROI: 19.13 15.25 16.02
ROE: 25.41 17.15 17.63
On September 24, 2007 the SanDisk Corporation announced the SanDisk Enterprise Solutions Technology Alliance (SESTA).[10] This alliance allows partners to evaluate compatibility and interoperability of their products with SanDisk’s secure portable hardware and supporting software, as well as join with SanDisk to raise awareness of best practices in endpoint and portable data security. SESTA is backed by a roster of founding partners including Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.; Citrix Systems Inc.; McAfee Inc.; RSA, The Security Division of EMC; and VeriSign, Inc.
Name Age Since Current Position
Michael Marks 60 2011 Independent Chairman of the Board
Sanjay Mehrotra 52 2011 President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
Irwin Federman 75 2006 Vice Chairman of the Board, Lead Independent Director
Judy Bruner 52 2004 Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President - Administration
Yoram Cedar 58 2010 Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice President
James Brelsford 55 2011 Senior Vice President - IP Licensing, Chief Legal Officer
Sumit Sadana 42 2010 Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer
James Meindl 77 1989 Director
Catherine Lego 54 2004 Independent Director
Eddy Hartenstein 60 2005 Independent Director
Steven Gomo 58 2005 Independent Director
Kevin DeNuccio 51 2009 Independent Director
Chenming Hu 63 2009 Independent Director
COMPANY ADDRESS
Sandisk Corp
601 McCarthy Boulevard
Milpitas CA 95035
The company is headquartered in Milpitas, California, with offices or manufacturing facilities in 10 locations in Asia (including Taiwan, China and Japan), 6 locations in Europe (including the UK, Ireland and Spain), and 3 locations in Israel (Kfar Sava, Tefen and Omer).
SanDisk is the global leader in flash memory cards, from research, manufacturing and product design to consumer branding and retail distribution. SanDisk's product portfolio includes flash memory cards for mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders; digital audio/video players; USB flash drives for consumers and the enterprise; embedded memory for mobile devices; and solid state drives for computers. SanDisk is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 company, with more than half its sales outside the United States.
SanDisk Corporation (SanDisk), incorporated in June 1988, is engaged in designing, developing and manufacturing data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. The Company operates through flash memory storage products segment. Most of its products are manufactured by combining NAND flash memory with a controller chip. The Company’s solutions include removable cards, embedded products, universal serial bus (USB) drives, digital media players, wafers and components. The removable card products are used in a range of consumer electronics devices, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, gaming devices and laptop computers. Its embedded flash products are used in mobile phones, tablets, eReaders, global positioning system, (GPS), devices, gaming systems, imaging devices and computing platforms.
The Company’s products are sold in a range of form factors, including Removable Cards, Embedded Products, USB Drives, Digital Media Players, and Wafers and Components. Its removable data storage solutions are available in a range of consumer form factors, such as its ultra-small microSD removable cards, available in capacities up to 32 gigabytes, are designed for use in mobile phones. Its CompactFlash removable cards, available in capacities up to 128 gigabytes, are suited for a range of consumer applications, including digital cameras. Its professional products include the SanDisk Ultra and SanDisk Extreme product lines. The Company’s embedded products include its iNAND embedded flash product line, with capacities up to 64 gigabytes, which is designed to respond to the increasing demand for embedded storage for mobile phones, tablets, eReaders and other portable devices. It also offers high-capacity SSDs targeted for the personal computing and server markets in capacities up to 256 gigabytes.
The Company’s Cruzer line of USB Flash Drives (UFDs) are used in the computing and consumer markets, are available in capacities up to 64 gigabytes. Its Cruzer products provide the user with the ability to carry files and application software on a portable USB drive. Its Professional and Enterprise line of UFDs are geared towards the corporate user and are specifically designed to support secure and authorized access to corporate information. Sansa is the Company’s branded line of flash-based digital media players for the digital audio and video player market. Many of its Sansa models offer a removable card slot for storage capacity expansion and transportability of content between devices. Features within its Sansa line of products include FM radio, voice recording and support for a variety of audio and video download and subscription services. Sansa media players are available in capacities up to 16 gigabytes. It also sells slotMusic and slotRadio products. It also sells raw memory wafers and memory components in packaged format.
The Company’s products are sold to mobile phones, consumer and computing markets. The Company sells its products through original equipment manufacturers customers and it sells SanDisk branded products directly or through distributors to consumer electronics stores, office superstores, photo retailers, mobile phone stores, mass merchants, catalog and mail order companies, Internet and e-commerce retailers, drug stores, supermarkets and convenience stores. The Company’s sales activities are organized into four regional territories: Americas; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Asia Pacific (APAC), and Japan.
The Company competes with Hynix, Intel, Micron, Samsung, Toshiba, A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd., Buffalo, Inc., Chips and More GmbH, Dane-Elec Memory, Eastman Kodak Company, Elecom Co., Ltd., FUJIFILM Corporation, Gemalto N.V., Hagiwara Sys-Com Co., Ltd., Hama GmbH & Co. KG, Imation Corporation, I-O Data Device, Inc., Kingmax Digital, Inc., Kingston Technology Company, Inc., Lexar, Netac Technology Co., Ltd., Panasonic, PNY Technologies, Inc., Power Quotient International Co., Ltd., RITEK Corporation, Sony, STMicroelectronics N.V., Transcend Information, Inc., Verbatim Americas LLC, STEC, Inc., OCZ Technology Group, Inc., Seagate Technology LLC, Western Digital Corporation, Apple Inc., ARCHOS Technology, Coby Electronics Corporation, Creative Technology Ltd., Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. and Microsoft Corporation.
Dr. Eli Harari, an Israeli engineer, began making early contributions to EEPROM - electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, a precursor to flash memory. Harari worked on flash memory at Intel, leaving to found a start-up which failed. In 1988, Harari launched the company that would become SanDisk with former Intel colleague Sanjay Mehrotra and former Hughes Electronics colleague Jack Yuan.
Early on, SanDisk had recognized that digital cameras would need digital storage, and computers could become ever more mobile and light and would require a similar storage technology. In 1988 Harari offered the flash memory card technology to Kodak for inclusion in their cameras. Kodak offered to fund the development with the condition that SanDisk offer a three year exclusive contract for the 'digital film'. Harari and SanDisk rejected the offer, preferring to have competition in the marketplace.
FlashCP is a digital rights management technology for the storage of electronic materials (e.g. e-books) on portable devices. FlashCP is targeted primarily at students and allows transportation of copyrighted material while enforcing copy restrictions against the user. SanDisk acquired the technology in 2005 with the purchase of Israel-based MDRM. As an avid proponent of DRM, this is one of many such technologies developed by SanDisk, the other ones being Gruvi pre-loaded memory cards and the underlying TrustedFlash technology. SanDisk media players have near universal support for Windows Media DRM and rely almost exclusively on variants of the copy-protection capable Secure Digital format for removable storage.
Currently, SanDisk manufactures one drive that uses the FlashCP technology, called the Freedom Drive, which is part of the Cruzer line. Additionally, digital content can be downloaded to Cruzer Freedom from the SanDisk Plaza, a growing online store offering digital books, music, games, and education tools. Prices for on line products vary. Many selections are free. Once downloaded, the digital content may be used online and offline.
In addition, the company has a division named SanDisk Enterprise which develops and manufactures a secure USB drive. SanDisk Enterprise was created to provide a solution for enterprises and government agencies to allow mobilization of the corporate computing environment with password protected USB flash drives. The company attempts to address the organization's risk management needs.
OVERALL
Beta: 1.74
Market Cap (Mil.): $11,291.67
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 238.37
Annual Dividend: --
Yield (%): --
FINANCIALS
SNDK.O Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 8.86 13.45 21.01
EPS (TTM): 46.04 -- --
ROI: 19.13 15.25 16.02
ROE: 25.41 17.15 17.63
On September 24, 2007 the SanDisk Corporation announced the SanDisk Enterprise Solutions Technology Alliance (SESTA).[10] This alliance allows partners to evaluate compatibility and interoperability of their products with SanDisk’s secure portable hardware and supporting software, as well as join with SanDisk to raise awareness of best practices in endpoint and portable data security. SESTA is backed by a roster of founding partners including Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.; Citrix Systems Inc.; McAfee Inc.; RSA, The Security Division of EMC; and VeriSign, Inc.
Name Age Since Current Position
Michael Marks 60 2011 Independent Chairman of the Board
Sanjay Mehrotra 52 2011 President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
Irwin Federman 75 2006 Vice Chairman of the Board, Lead Independent Director
Judy Bruner 52 2004 Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President - Administration
Yoram Cedar 58 2010 Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice President
James Brelsford 55 2011 Senior Vice President - IP Licensing, Chief Legal Officer
Sumit Sadana 42 2010 Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer
James Meindl 77 1989 Director
Catherine Lego 54 2004 Independent Director
Eddy Hartenstein 60 2005 Independent Director
Steven Gomo 58 2005 Independent Director
Kevin DeNuccio 51 2009 Independent Director
Chenming Hu 63 2009 Independent Director
COMPANY ADDRESS
Sandisk Corp
601 McCarthy Boulevard
Milpitas CA 95035