SanDisk 2010 Annual Report Download - page 131

This is a TAB type table. Insert
conts here. Annual Report
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Statements in this report, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning
of the federal securities laws. These statements may contain words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,”
“plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates” or other wording indicating future results or expectations. Forward-
looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from the
results discussed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause our actual results to differ
materially include, but are not limited to, those discussed in “Risk Factors” in Item 1A, and elsewhere in this
report. Our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially adversely affected by any of
these factors. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect any event
or circumstance that arises after the date of this report. References in this report to “SanDisk®,” “we,” “our,”
and “us,” collectively refer to SanDisk Corporation, a Delaware corporation, and its subsidiaries. All references
to years or annual periods are references to our fiscal years, which consisted of 52 weeks in 2010 and 2008 and
53 weeks in 2009.
Overview
Who We Are. SanDisk Corporation, a global technology company, is the inventor and leading supplier of
NAND flash data storage products. Flash storage technology allows digital information to be stored in a durable,
compact format that retains the data even after the power has been switched off. Our products are used in a
variety of large markets, and we distribute our products globally through retail and original equipment
manufacturer, or OEM, channels. Our goal is to provide simple, reliable, and affordable storage solutions for
consumer use in a wide variety of formats and devices. We were incorporated in Delaware in June 1988 under
the name SunDisk Corporation and changed our name to SanDisk Corporation in August 1995. Since 2006, we
have been a Standards & Poor, or S&P, 500 company.
What We Do. We design, develop and manufacture data storage solutions in a variety of form factors using
our flash memory, proprietary controller and firmware technologies. Our solutions include removable cards,
embedded products, universal serial bus, or USB, drives, digital media players, wafers and components. Our
removable card products are used in a wide range of consumer electronics devices such as mobile phones, digital
cameras, gaming devices and laptop computers. Our embedded flash products are used in mobile phones, tablets,
eReaders, global positioning system, or GPS, devices, gaming systems, imaging devices and computing
platforms. For computing platforms, we provide high-speed, high-capacity storage solutions known as solid-state
drives, or SSDs, that can be used in lieu of hard disk drives.
Most of our products are manufactured by combining NAND flash memory with a controller chip. We
purchase the vast majority of our NAND flash memory supply requirements through our significant flash venture
relationships with Toshiba Corporation, or Toshiba, which produce and provide us with leading-edge, low-cost
memory wafers. From time-to-time, we also purchase flash memory on a foundry basis from NAND flash
manufacturers including Toshiba, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., or Samsung, and Hynix Semiconductor, Inc.,
or Hynix. We generally design our controllers in-house and have them manufactured at third-party foundries.
Industry Background
We operate in the flash memory semiconductor industry, which is comprised of NOR and NAND
technologies. These technologies are also referred to as non-volatile memory, which retains data even after the
power is switched off. NAND flash memory is the current mainstream technology for mass data storage
applications and is used for embedded and removable data storage. NAND flash memory is characterized by fast
write speeds and high capacities. The NAND flash memory industry has been characterized by rapid technology
transitions which have reduced the cost per bit by increasing the density of the memory chips on the wafer. As
cost and price per bit have decreased, there has been growing demand for NAND flash for data storage purposes
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