Shareholders' Meeting 2000 Part IV
IV. A Special Presentation: "Making Magic"
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"Dr. Harari, now that the annual meeting has officially concluded, I wished to make a brief informal presentation. As a regular participant on the Silicon Investor SanDisk Thread, and there are several of us here today, I feel I speak for the group as a whole when I say that our primary goal has been to educate individual investors about the merits of SanDisk. We also feel that instilling shareholder loyalty will be crucial in helping to iron out some of the volatility we have witnessed in the equity markets lately. In the current investment environment where stock ownership is measured in days, hours, and perhaps even minutes, it is extremely difficult to convince investors to "see the BIG picture". I wanted to reassure you that we will be unrelenting in our efforts to get the message out about SanDisk.
On a more personal note, I have owned a digital camera for a little more than 2 years now. I have been fascinated with the seemingly limitless possibilities for digital photography. A few weeks back I was thumbing through the annual report which, by the way, had many glossy photos in it, including a picture of Dr. Harari on the inside cover. My daughter came up to see what I was reading when she exclaimed, "Hey, I know what that is. That's CompactFlash." So I asked Emma if she knew what CompactFlash does. She said, "Sure, you take pictures with it." William, my 4 year old son, then came along to get a look. I asked him the same question, but he had a totally different response. He said quite emphatically, "it makes magic". In that brief utterance I think he voiced so precisely that exact reaction I experienced the first time I "developed" a digital photograph on my PC. Let there be no doubt, CompactFlash is a magical product.
Despite the appeal of SanDisk's products, I have been puzzled by the ongoing lack of recognition of SanDisk in the lay press. I know that the public relations and marketing teams have been working hard at getting the word out, but it seems to be a continual uphill battle. Just about one year ago the following piece appeared as a full-paged, vibrantly colored story about the battle between various up-and-coming removable memory solutions. It appeared in the "Circuits" section of the Thursday New York Times (see photo above of the poster presented to Dr. Harari). If you look closely you will see the Iomega Clik! featured most prominently. I don?t think we need to discuss the fate of Clik! today. You may also notice a pre-production model of the IBM microdrive. There is a number written in the lower right hand corner of the device. It says "1958", which I assume was the year of the first production run. (dead silence...) That was supposed to be a joke. (a few chuckles...) Lastly, there is a picture of the Sony Memory Stick. Somehow both CompactFlash and SmartMedia were left out of this graphic. I find that peculiar. What you may not notice is the original date of the piece. It is April 1, 1999. Thus, the only logical conclusion I could draw was that this was some kind of an April Fools' Day joke. (laughter...)
Dr. Harari, I hope you have a place for this poster in your office or in one of the hallways or lobbies here. Let serve as a reminder of the great progress your team at SanDisk has accomplished in the last year."
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