SanDisk 2011 Annual Report Download - page 67

This is a TAB type table. Insert
conts here. Annual Report
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and our
future results that are subject to the safe harbors created under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical facts are
statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. 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 harmed 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 2011 and 2010 and 53 weeks in 2009.
Overview
Who We Are. SanDisk Corporation is an innovator and a global leader in flash memory storage solutions.
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 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.
Since 2011, we have been a Fortune 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 cards 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,
ultrabooks, eReaders, global positioning system, or GPS, devices, gaming systems, imaging devices and
computing platforms. For computing platforms, we provide high-speed and 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 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 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
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