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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rich Miani who wrote (11089)	5/16/2000 3:28:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Shareholders' Meeting: Sony and Lexar Media Sony Eli stated that he wanted to be on friendly terms with Sony. As he mentioned in a prior interview posted here several weeks ago, SanDisk is essentially working on the challenges it has set forth for itself. It doesn't view competitors as the main competition (not sure how else I can word that) primarily because flash is in such short supply. SanDisk has its work cut out for itself in gearing up its own production. Sony helps the cause of flash memory by incorporating a flash memory solution in their product line with their flagship product, Memory Stick. In doing this Sony pays a licensing fee on the flash wafer indirectly to SanDisk. I do not believe there are any card level patents. At some point in the future it is plausible that Sony may wish to purchase wafer from the FlashVision JV. I think this will depend on the success of Sony's product launches. Also, Sony is not stupid. They must realize that the synergy of the SanDisk/Toshiba JV will create the lowest cost, highest technology products on the market. SanDisk and Sony need to stay on friendly terms. Eli has made this clear in his statements and his actions. In the Fall of 1998 I also recall Eli stating, "We'd be happy to wrap our flash chips in (purple) plastic for Sony." Lexar Media We did not ask any questions about Lexar Media. This is litigation in progress. It seemed inappropriate to ask questions about ongoing legal proceedings. Some would also consider it ill-advised or inappropriate for management to speculate on the outcome of a lawsuit. We did everyone a favor by "not going there". Ausdauer

To: Rich Miani who wrote (11089)	5/16/2000 5:46:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

IBM microdrive failures are starting to be reported. credits: rongalbraith.com How's your microdrive? As the IBM microdrive approaches its first birthday this summer, reports of the miniature marvel's demise seem to be on the rise. My own microdrive failed recently, and without warning, as it had not been roughly handled for several months. It now makes an unpleasant click-click-click sound as it tries in vain to spin up, and steadfastly refuses to be recognized by either Mac or PC. Others appear to be having similar experiences. Tony Ranze, Director of Photography for the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group, posted this message to the D1 Discussion List this morning: "Microdrives are dropping daily at our newspapers. Boxed two of them up yesterday for a repair trip back to Microtech International. Talked to Microtech yesterday to secure an RMA number for service and was informed that it might be three to four weeks before they can repair of replace the drives. If I hear one more staff shooter crumbling about his Microdrive I am going to offer them all up for trade (the drives not the shooter). Each of our nine shooters at The Ledger in Lakeland has one Microdrive and two Lexar or Sandisk 128 mb cards. I stopped purchasing IBM Microdrives last year when I decided that it was better to have more cards with less memory then it was to have less cards with more memory." In contrast, Gerhard Strobl recently offered this, also on the D1 Discussion List: My personal estimate is that less than 0.5% of all people using Microdrives together with a D1 (and PJ's in turn are a really small part of the overall Microdrive market) have ever experienced any problems with [the D1-microdrive] combination. Ausdauer

To: Rich Miani who wrote (11089)	5/16/2000 5:55:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

Trying to understand the importance of card level patents. Sony does not pay card level patents to SanDisk. They likely pay a small royalty to SanDisk via their flash chip provider. This could be Hitachi, Toshiba or Samsung. Eli stated that SanDisk's and Toshiba's products derived from FlashVision LLC will probably not compete on the open market because Toshiba is a component company and SanDisk is a card company. This is why you can't walk in to BestBuy and purchase a Toshiba CompactFlash card today (or a Hitachi or Samsung card for that matter). I still strongly believe that SanDisk's greatest growth potential and hidden gold mine is the card level patents. For a long-winded discussion of the status of this situation (with a lot of connecting of dots) please see this prior post... Message 13517245 The last link on this post is a summary of my position. All IMHO. Draw your own conclusions. Ausdauer