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

To: limtex who wrote (2858)	4/22/1998 11:17:00 AM
From: Jerome Wittamer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Here's a thought in relation with the revenue growth of SanDisk, it should be read keeping in mind the information included in the PR below (I know, it's already been posted). Over the long-term (3-5 years) this company will boast USD 1Bln in revenues with a stock over $100. This is consistent with the figures shown in the research study below : 22,7% of the market in 2002 will mean USD 1 Bln in sales for SanDisk. Assuming SanDisk loses market share to keep only 15% of the market it would still make USD 660 Mln in sales. This would not take into account all the royalties and licence fees it derives from Samsung, Hitachi, Intel, Toshiba and Sharp. These already account for +/- 20% of total revenues. These contracts with leaders such as Hitachi and Toshiba are very beneficial in that SanDisk fully participate in the overall growth of the market since for most flash cards these firms sell, SanDisk gets a payment. Assuming royalties increase to 30% of total revenues (which is the current trend), royalties should amount to USD 247 Mln. Total revenues would thus be USD 907 Mln. Not too bad since SanDisk's total 12-months revenues are currently USD 130 Mln. My target is $50 within the next 6 months. The market for flash cards is red hot. See for yourself : Monday April 20, 11:32 am Eastern Time Company Press Release Semico Research Study Ranks SanDisk First in Worldwide Flash Card Market Sales in 1997 Semico Also Concludes That SanDisk Was The Market Leader In CompactFlash Card Sales With A 76 Percent Market Share In 1997 SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 20, 1998-- SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK - news) announced today that a new Semico market research study ranks SanDisk first both in revenue and units shipped in Semico's 1997 survey of removable flash memory cards. SanDisk shipped 1.5 million flash cards last year and had a commanding 40 percent unit market share of the 3.75 million flash cards shipped worldwide in 1997, according to Semico. The research firm reported that shipments included 2.4 million small size memory cards, such as SanDisk's CompactFlash(TM) (CF(TM)), and 1.35 million Type I, II and III flash memory PC cards. Semico concluded that CompactFlash was the largest selling small size memory card with 1.3 million cards sold for a 55 percent market share. With sales of over one million CF cards in 1997, SanDisk had a 76 percent share of the CompactFlash market. Semico found that the flash card market had worldwide sales of $375 million in 1997 and SanDisk, with flash card sales of $106 million, had a 28 percent revenue market share lead. Alan Niebel, director of non-volatile memory for Semico Research, Phoenix, AZ, said, ''The flash card market grew substantially, increasing from $288 million in 1996 to $375 million in 1997. We are forecasting worldwide flash card sales of $701 million this year, $2.4 billion in the year 2000 and $4.4 billion in 2002.'' Niebel attributed much of the increase to the growing demand for flash cards in consumer applications such as digital cameras, handheld computers and audio digital recorders. He said, ''The consumer market accounted for 28 percent of total worldwide shipments in 1997 but we expect such shipments to escalate at a rapid rate and rise to a significant 55 percent by 2002. Unit demand for flash cards in the EDP, industrial and communications markets continues to be relatively strong.'' Nelson Chan, SanDisk vice president of marketing, said, ''This Semico research supports our own findings in the marketplace that SanDisk continues to lead the market for flash cards, especially small size memory cards such as CompactFlash. Two primary forces are driving strong growth in the flash card market: prices are declining significantly each year and product designers are finding hundreds of new applications for removable flash memory cards each year.'' Chan added, ''It is especially noteworthy that in the small size memory card market, more CompactFlash cards are sold than are all other types of such cards combined including SmartMedia and the Miniature Card. And despite the increased competition in the CompactFlash card market, it is gratifying that Semico credits SanDisk with a 76 percent market share in the CompactFlash market.'' Semico's study covered 23 companies producing flash memory cards. It concluded that most flash card sales were made in the Americas with 57 percent of all dollar sales in 1997. Japan ranked second with sales of 22 percent. The study also noted that the Asia Pacific region ''is forecast to register the highest growth, rising from 1 percent in 1997 to 13.5 percent in just five years.'' Following SanDisk's 28 percent revenue market lead were Hitachi (15 percent), Toshiba (10 percent), PNY (6.1 percent), Intel (5.9 percent) and Samsung (5.6 percent). All other companies had less than a five percent revenue market share. SanDisk Corporation, the world's largest supplier of flash data storage products, designs, manufactures and markets industry-standard, solid-state data, image and audio storage products using its patented, high density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is based in Sunnyvale, CA. The matters discussed in this news release contain forward looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties as described under the caption ''Risk Factors'' in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company assumes no obligation to update the information in this release. NOTE TO EDITORS: CompactFlash and CF are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation SanDisk's web site/home page address: sandisk.com