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

To: Ausdauer who wrote (18980)	2/7/2001 11:27:24 PM
From: BuzzVA	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 60323

Heck with digital cameras and music players...I want one of these for work. edig.com

To: Ausdauer who wrote (18980)	2/8/2001 10:41:36 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 60323

Aus, if Lexar goes broke, it will be able to continue selling products, but without having to pay off debts and other obligations during the period of reorganization. As Lexar makes certain products that compete with nearly identical products from SanDisk, a bankruptcy can only continue to draw customers away from SanDisk. Eventually, SNDK will benefit, but not for a couple of years at least. Meanwhile, another possibility is that the remains of Lexar will be picked up by a company that wants Lexar's controller technology and that does not wish to continue making CF or MMC (Sony, perhaps?). This would effectively remove a company no longer able to pay debts or royalties. As to whether other competitors of SanDisk are paying royalties, I have expressed some concerns for well over a year that all the cross licensing agreements between SanDisk and other companies like Intel, Toshiba, Hitachi, etc. may have turned the removable flash memory business into what is hardly more than a commodity business, where the lowest cost producer eventually wins over the others. I still believe SanDisk has some marketable patents, but its portfolio contains nothing comparable in scope or depth with that of QUALCOMM. Thus, in evaluating SanDisk, one cannot give its patents nearly the value one would give to those held by QUALCOMM. What it comes down to is that future profits for SanDisk will be heavily dependent on how efficiently the FlashVision joint venture with Toshiba is able to operate (the plant in Virginia). Secondly, but also important, is the ability of SanDisk to maintain strong cash flow and little or no debt, thereby making itself financially self sufficient and helping it to compete with other companies that may have more debt or are more dependent on other fabricators. Art