SanDisk Corporation

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Type	Public S&P 500 Component
Traded as	NASDAQ: SNDK
Industry	Data storage device Computer memory
Founded	1988
Founder(s)	Dr. Eli Harari Sanjay Mehrotra
Headquarters	Milpitas, California, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Michael E. Marks (Chairman) Sanjay Mehrotra (President & CEO)
Products	Flash memory cards USB flash drives Digital Audio Players Solid State Drives
Revenue	US$ 5.66 billion (2012)[1]
Operating income	US$ 1.53 billion (2012)[1]
Profit	US$ 0.98 billion (2012)[1]
Total assets	US$ 10.17 billion (2012)[1]
Total equity	US$ 7.06 billion (2012)[1]
Employees	3,939 (Apr '12)[1]
Website	www.sandisk.com

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. As of September 2011, its market capitalization is US$9.95 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 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'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.^[2]

History[link]

Dr. Eli Harari, an Israeli engineer, began making early contributions to EEPROM or 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.^[3]

Early on, SanDisk (then known as SunDisk) 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.^[3]

Financial information[link]

SanDisk is a component of the GSTI Semiconductor Index.

Acquisitions[link]

• SanDisk bought M-Systems, a USB flash memory stick maker for US$1.3 billion in 2006.^[4]
• SanDisk bought Pliant, a SSD maker for US$327 million in 2011.^[5]
• SanDisk bought FlashSoft, a provider of innovative caching software products, for undisclosed sum in 2012.^[6]

MP3 license dispute[link]

On September 4, 2006 at the IFA show in Berlin, German authorities seized all MP3 players that were in SanDisk's booth since Italian patent company Sisvel had won an injunction against it regarding the MP3 format.^[7] Sisvel, who had previously filed a separate lawsuit in Mannheim, claims that SanDisk uses the MP3 format without paying the required licensing fee. On September 8, 2006, a Berlin court overturned the injunction and SanDisk put the players back on display.^[8]

On March 16, 2007 SanDisk issued a press release announcing they had reached agreement and now acquired licences for all current and future MP3 applications.^[9]

Products[link]

FlashCP

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 online 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.

An SD card, mini SD card, and micro SD card from top to bottom.

16 GB Cruzer Micro.

Memory Cards[link]

• PCMCIA
• ExpressCard
• CompactFlash (1994)
• MultiMediaCard (1997)
• xD-Picture Card
• Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO (2003), Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, * Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo, Memory Stick Micro (M2)
• RS-MMC (2004)
• Gruvi DRM memory cards (2006, discontinued)
• SD Card The industry standard.
• SDHC Card (Compatible With Nintendo DSI And 3DS)
• SD Mini Card
• SD Micro Card
• MicroSD

USB Flash Drives[link]

• Cruzer® Switch™ USB Flash Drive
• Cruzer® Fit™ USB Flash Drive
• SanDisk Ultra® USB Flash Drive
• Cruzer® Edge™ USB Flash Drive
• Cruzer® Blade™ USB Flash Drive
• Cruzer® USB Flash Drive
• SanDisk Ultra® Backup USB Flash Drive

Others[link]

Audio and Video Players[link]

• Sansa Fuze+
• Sansa Fuze
• Sansa Connect
• Sansa Shaker
• Sansa Express
• Sansa c200
• Sansa e100
• Sansa e200
• Sansa TakeTV
• Sansa Clip, Clip+,
• Sansa Clip Zip
• Sansa View
• slotRadio Player
• slotMusic Player

Data recovery software^[10]

• SanDisk RescuePRO
• SanDisk RescuePRO Deluxe

Partnerships[link]

On September 24, 2007 the SanDisk Corporation announced the SanDisk Enterprise Solutions Technology Alliance (SESTA).^[11] 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.

Other companies are among the founding partners of SESTA, including:^[12]

• Applied Identity, Inc.
• Centennial Software Limited
• Check Point
• ControlGuard
• CoSoSys
• Diversinet Corp.
• Dmailer
• LC Technology International, Inc.^[13]
• Lumension Security (formerly SecureWave)
• MokaFive
• Promisec Ltd.
• RedCannon Security Inc.
• Safend
• Secuware
• SmartLine Inc.
• Sweet Spot Solutions Inc.
• Tablus, Inc.
• Vericept Corporation

See also[link]

	Companies portal
	San Francisco Bay Area portal

• FlashCP
• Flash memory
• Secure USB Drive
• StartKey
• U3
• Central Management and Control
• USB drive
• Sansa
• slotRadio

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: SanDisk

• Official website

Business data

• SanDisk Corporation at Google Finance
• SanDisk Corporation at Yahoo! Finance
• SanDisk Corporation at Hoover's
• SanDisk Corporation at Reuters
• SanDisk Corporation SEC filings at EDGAR Online
• SanDisk Corporation SEC filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission

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