MILPITAS, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today announced temporary cuts to its Flash
wafer production in its joint-venture manufacturing facilities in Yokkaichi,
Japan. Production in Fab 3 and Fab 4 will be temporarily halted from December 31
to January 12. Following this shut-down, joint venture production will resume at
approximately 70 percent of current capacity. The duration and extent of this
reduction in fab output will depend upon market conditions. These steps will
result in higher wafer cost due to underutilization of capacity; however, they
are expected to better align SanDisk’s captive output in 2009 with the projected
demand in the current global economic slowdown.
SanDisk also indicated that it is continuing to work with Toshiba on definitive
agreements to restructure the manufacturing joint ventures and expects to sign
these agreements in the first quarter of calendar year 2009. A non-binding
memorandum of understanding regarding selling a portion of the capacity from the
joint ventures to Toshiba was originally announced on October 20, 2008.
SanDisk will provide additional details on these capacity actions when it holds
its fourth quarter 2008 earnings results conference call.
About SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation, the inventor and world’s largest supplier of flash storage
cards, is a global leader in flash memory – from research, manufacturing and
product design to consumer branding and retail distribution. SanDisk’s product
portfolio includes flash memory cards for mobile phones, digital cameras and
camcorders; digital audio/video players; USB flash drives for consumers and the
enterprise; embedded memory for mobile devices; and solid state drives for
computers. SanDisk is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 company, with more than
half its sales outside the United States.
SanDisk’s web site/home page address: http://www.sandisk.com
SanDisk’s product and executive images can be downloaded from
http://www.sandisk.com/corporate/mediakit/
SanDisk, the SanDisk logo and Cruzer Enterprise are trademarks of SanDisk
Corporation, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Other brand names
mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of
their respective holder(s).
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including market
demand; our output reduction measures; and the restructuring of our
manufacturing joint ventures that are based on our current expectations and
involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking
statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause these forward-looking
statements to be inaccurate include among others: demand for our products may
grow more slowly than our expectations; unintended effects of our output
reduction measures or the failure to fully implement the output reduction
measures; the failure to execute definitive agreements related to the
restructuring of our manufacturing joint ventures on the terms set forth in the
MOU announced on October 20, 2008, or at all; and the other risks detailed from
time-to-time under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our Securities
and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our
annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We do not
intend to update the information contained in this press release.
SanDisk Corporation
Ryan J. Donovan, +1-408-801-2857 (Media)
ryan.donovan@sandisk.com
Jay Iyer, +1-408-801-2067 (Investors)
jay.iyer@sandisk.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
