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

To: tekboy who wrote (14942)	9/22/2000 10:14:26 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

SANDISK "Film" for a Digital Era If you rue the passing of the good old days of photography, when film was film and computer chips stored words, not pictures, blame SanDisk(NASDAQ: NSDK - Quotes, News, Boards) The company, based in Sunnyvale, California, designs flash-memory storage products, a kind of electronic recall that retains data even when power to a device is turned off. The patented technology is used in tiny memory cards that are much more reliable and rugged than disk drives and, unlike those drives, can operate on two AA batteries. Those features solved the data-storage problems of digital cameras and opened the door to a market predicted to reach 6.5 million units this year and, by 2004, as many as 40 million annually, according to International Data Corporation. SanDisk collects royalties amounting to roughly $10 million per quarter from Toshiba, Intel, Sharp, and other manufacturers licensed to use their flash-memory designs, but gets most of its revenue from its own products. These include CompactFlash memory cards, the "film" in digital cameras; MultiMediaCards that store data on small, removable cards; other cards that expand capabilities of laptop computers and protect e-commerce transactions; and a new chip that can dramatically increase the data-storage capacity of many handheld devices while decreasing size and cost. Surging demand for products that depend on flash memory pushed sales at SanDisk to $247 million last year, 82% more than in 1998, and have helped keep the company profitable every quarter since it went public in 1995. In the most recent quarter, SanDisk posted a revenue gain of 148% with earnings per share jumping 200% from the same quarter a year earlier. Analysts predict that earnings for the year will reach $0.89 a share, more than double the $0.43 reported in 1999; the consensus estimate for 2001 is $1.23. Any economic setback in Asia, where many SanDisk customers are based, could slow momentum, and Sony's new Memory Stick might pose stiff competition. Shortages of SanDisk memory cards earlier this year weakened shares, but the company has taken steps to increase capacity, including a joint venture with Toshiba to produce chips in the United States.