Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of flash memory chips, said today that it is considering an acquisition of SanDisk Corp.

We are considering various opportunities regarding SanDisk but nothing has been decided,

said James Chung, a spokesman at Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung. Possible acquiring of SanDisk would help Samsung save about 400 billion won ($355 million) in royalties annually, it has been reported.

It would have a significant impact on the supply and demand in the flash memory industry, ... Samsung could create additional demand from SanDisk's customers.

said Lee Sun Tae, an independent analyst at Meritz Securities Co in Seoul. On the other side, Mike Wong - SanDisk's official spokesman said that SanDisk is not aware of Samsung being interested in any acquisition. Expect more information, when there's any.

During a conference of the company's second quarter earnings, the CEO Eli Harari of Sandisk, a significant player in the solid state drive (SSD) industry said that Windows Vista would present a special challenge for solid state drive (SSD) makers. Says Harari: "As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid state disk,". He hints at the design of Vista as a cause for performance not being upto the mark, adding that Sandisk's next generation drive controllers should aim to "basically compensate for Vista shortfalls".

"Unfortunately, (SSDs) performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs and that is why we need to develop the next generation, which we'll start sampling end of this year, early next year," said Harari. Ironically, he has also been quoted saying that such issues didn't affect the "very low-end, ultra low-cost PCs" (read ULPCs), where existing controller technologies could handle 8 ~ 32 GB drive capacities. Clever choice of words since that's the segment that has drive manufacturers, both SSD and HDD, eying at since it's an emerging segment.

SanDisk Corp said it signed a patent cross-license agreement with PNY Technologies to settle patent cases it filed against PNY last year in Federal District Court and the International Trade Commission, regarding flash memory products. Under the terms of the cross-license, PNY will pay SanDisk royalties on flash memory products that were not previously licensed. The agreement allows PNY to continue marketing and selling USB drives and CompactFlash cards, now as SanDisk licensed products. Other specific terms of the cross-license are confidential.

SanDisk Corp. unveiled a Universal Serial Bus flash drive that automatically copies files to an online backup service when plugged into any PC with an Internet connection. The new Cruzer Titanium Plus flash drive is priced at $59.99 with 4GB of memory. It will be available in March, replacing the older Cruzer Titanium line. The online backup capability is priced at $29.99 per year, after the first six months of the service which are offered without charge. The files will be copied to Tel Aviv-based BeInSync Ltd.'s online backup service under an arrangement with SanDisk. The backup service will store up to 4GB for each product, effectively mirroring the capacity of the USB drive. Any new or changed files copied to the USB flash drive while a PC is offline will be backed up during the next connection. Any files deleted from the flash memory product will be kept online for approximately 30 days. The backup service currently supports PCs running Microsoft Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP and Windows Vista. SanDisk has no plans to provide online backup support to Macintosh- and Linux-based systems.

SanDisk Corporation today unveiled a solid-state storage solution that works in conjunction with a PC's hard drive to store and launch the computer's operating system and software applications when needed. The new SanDisk Vaulter Disk, which is a flash-based PCI Express module, tag-teams with your laptop or desktop computers' hard drive to provide enhanced performance and lower load times. Both Vaulter and the hard drive are integrated into the PC and operate simultaneously, while maintaining a low cost per gigabyte. The SanDisk Vaulter Disk will be offered to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) early next year in capacities from 8GB to 16GB.

SanDisk, a company well known for developing and manufacturing flash-based storage solutions, is suing 25 companies including LG Electronics for allegedly infringing patents used in removable flash storage products such as MP3 players and USB flash drives. The company has filed two lawsuits, one for five patent infringements and the other for two patent infringements, as well as filing a complaint with the US International Trade Commission asking to have the companies being accused barred from exporting their products to the USA. Other companies involved include Buffalo, Apacer Technology and Kingston, and if the case is successful it could see a rise in the price of flash-based storage such as CompactFlash cards.

SanDisk is looking to drop the price of SSDs for the entry-level market with its new uSSD 5000 SSD series. The USB-based drives will be used in sub-$250 PCs and will be embedded directly onto motherboards.

SanDisk Corporation today launched the SanDisk Multi Card ExpressCard Adapter, offering fast transfer speeds from memory cards to notebook computers without the need to carry cables or external card readers. The announcement was made at IFA, the world's largest consumer electronics show, where SanDisk is exhibiting at Booth 130, in Hall 15.1 of Messe Berlin. The new adapter fits into the ExpressCard slot now found in most new notebook computers, and accepts six card formats: SD, SDHC, MultiMediaCard, MMCplus, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo and Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo. The SanDisk Multi Card ExpressCard Adapter is expected to available in North America and Europe in September, with a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $29.99 in the United States. Suggested retail pricing in Europe is yet to be announced.

Flash memory manufacturer SanDisk has announced a new high-capacity addition to its Cruzer Micro line-up. The new 8GB flash drive doubles the capacity of the existing Cruzer Micro drives, while maintaining the same dimensions. The Cruzer Micro 8GB ships with U3 smart technology. Co-Invented by SanDisk, U3 technology features embedded password manager and AVAST antivirus software in drive's memory. The drive is set to become available from mid-September and will cost $129.99 in the US.

MILPITAS, CALIF., June 4, 2007 - Reaching for the "sweet spot" of memory storage for laptop computers, SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today expanded its line of solid state drive (SSD) products with the introduction of a 64-gigabyte (GB)1 SSD aimed at both enterprise users and early adopter consumers such as gamers. SanDisk 1.8-inch UATA 5000 and 2.5-inch SATA 5000 SSD products, which already are available in a 32GB capacity, are compatible as drop-in replacements for hard disk drives in most mainstream notebook computers.

Sandisk and Sony are now partnering up to push their SxS standard. The new flash based cards will be made for Sony's upcoming XDCAM EX high-def camcorders. Both companies claim the cards will have a normal transfer rate of 800 megabits per second and will be able to burst to a maximum speed of 2.5Gb/sec. The new SxS standard will also be compatible with the ExpressCard industry standard, which means that it can be easily used in notebook computers with an ExpressCard slot. Sandisk and Sony say the SxS cards will be available later this year. No pricing has been announced.

MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 13, 2007 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today broadened its solid state drive (SSD) product line for the portable computer market with the introduction of a 32-gigabyte (GB)1, 2.5-inch Serial ATA (SATA) interface model, compatible with most mainstream notebook designs. Coming just two months after SanDisk introduced a 1.8-inch SSD for ultraportable notebooks, the 2.5-inch SSD is now available to PC manufacturers as a drop-in replacement for hard disk drives.

When a company is faced with a lack of demand for their products, they have to bring prices down. And in order to stay in business and out of debt, a company also sometimes has to "cut operating expenses". Unfortunately, this usually means a cut in the workforce, which is exactly how SanDisk is handling the currently dropping prices of memory sticks. 10% of the main workforce, which translates to 250 people, can expect to get the pink slip around March. Salaries of everyone who is working at Sandisk will drop around 10 or 20 percent.

Microsoft does offer limited WiFi capabilities with their Zune, but SanDisk is now joining the frey, SanDisks's new Sansa Connect doesn't have the sharing features of the Microsoft Zune, but it does allow users to connect directly to the Internet via a wireless hot spot to download music or distribute photos. No PC is needed to accomplish these tasks. The Sansa Connect has 4GB of internal storage as well as a microSD slot. A 2.2-inch color screen an internal speaker round up the entire package. The Sansa Connect will be available in retail store in late March for $249.99.

SanDisk Corporation today introduced a 32-gigabyte (GB), 1.8-inch solid state drive (SSD) as a drop-in replacement for the standard mechanical hard disk drive. Initially aimed at enterprise users as the first step toward mass consumer adoption, SanDisk SSD offers field-proven durability to keep mobile PCs working in the toughest of conditions and improves the overall user experience.

SanDisk and Sony today announced the development of a new Memory Stick PRO-HG format, compatible with the existing Memory Stick PRO format. The Memory Stick Duo sized card extends the maximum storage capacity by up to 32GB, and boost performance by increasing the internal core clock from 40MHz to 60MHz. As a result, the maximum data rate has jumped to 60MB/sec - three times that of the Memory Stick PRO format. Minimum write speed for Memory Stick PRO-HG media is listed at 15MB/sec. The first Memory Stick PRO-HG media will be available in January 2007, but there is no information when the format's maximum 32GB storage capacity will be reached.