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

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (26505)	8/13/2004 10:49:37 AM
From: Cisco	Respond to of 60323

8/13/2004 10:00:37 AM Sarasota, FL, Aug 13, 2004 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- RumorAlert.com Stocks to Watch on Friday, August 13, 2004 SanDisk Corporation ( SNDK ) announced on Thursday a new global advertising and brand-building campaign that is designed to increase user awareness and educate consumers about SanDisk's flash memory cards. The campaign, the company's first global advertising campaign, began in June with a combination of print, outdoor and online ads in North America, Europe and Asia, and includes the company's first television commercial that starts airing August 13, the opening day of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (26505)	8/13/2004 12:51:56 PM
From: Pam	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 60323

Hi Art, You have been following SNDK for a while now, I have a couple of questions for you or anyone else on the thread who can give some insight- (1) Has anyone tracked SNDK's performance vs the spot prices for Nand Flash? I wonder how much in-synch have they moved in the past. I have been tracking the spot prices starting June 1st (obviously, I don't have enough data to draw any meaningful conclusions) and as of today 2Gb, 1Gb, 512Mb and 256Mb NAND chips are down 36.16%, 31.42%, 42.08% and 16.55% respectively. Sndk started cutting prices just before March-end this year and as of last Q report ASP's were down 16% and they expect similar declines this Q again. Looking at the pace of declines in the spot markets, it seems to me that either Samsung has been dumping the output (the ones that Sandisk is not buying from them, if one remembers Sandisk lowered the non-captive purchase last Q, and also some others who are buying less as they are having a hard time to compete with Sandisk) or the demand is slower relative to increase in supply because of migration to 90nm technology and thus higher output. Any comments? (2) Does anyone have any insights as to how well FlashVision competes with Samsung in terms of cost of producing an identical chip using identical process? I know this a hard question because Samsung's o/p is completely SBC and FlashVision's mostly MLC. What I am trying to look into is if Samsung starts producing MLC (which I believe, they will by year-end), are the costs comparable for both companies? Of course, there is one more variable that I am ignoring- Samsung has 300mm wafers vs FV's 200mm (Samsung has an advantage here). Well, the reason I am asking this question is that I suspect FV's costs are higher. In the last couple of years, I would say that 4Q2003 was one of the best Q in terms of pricing stability of components (due to supply/demand imbalance) and the GM for Sandisk were 42.29% If one deducts, the lic income, this figure comes down significantly and I wonder where are all the benefits of being vertically aligned going into?? Has anyone made comparisons with some other co's as to whether they should have higher GM because of being vertically aligned? I mean, 4Q03 is as good as it gets for Flash memory markets. Anyway, this stock seems to be constantly under pressure which is unlikely to go away until the market sentiment improves. -Pam