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SanDisk

Coordinates: 37°25′07.6″N 121°55′25.9″W / 37.418778°N 121.923861°W / 37.418778; -121.923861
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SanDisk LLC
Formerly
  • SunDisk Corporation (1988–1995)
  • SanDisk Corporation (1995–2016; first era)
  • SanDisk LLC (2016–present)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryComputer data storage
FoundedJune 1, 1988; 36 years ago (1988-06-01)[1]
Founders
Headquarters
Milpitas, California
,
United States
Products
Number of employees
Increase 8,790
ParentWestern Digital
Websitewww.sandisk.com

SanDisk is an American multinational computer technology company based in Milpitas, California. A subsidary of Western Digital, it is known for its flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players.

As of March 2019, Western Digital was the fourth-largest manufacturer of flash memory having declined from third-largest in 2014.[2]

History

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First SanDisk logo (1995–2007)
Second SanDisk logo (2007–2024)

SanDisk (originally Sundisk) was founded in 1988 by Eli Harari, Sanjay Mehrotra, and Jack Yuan.[3] In 1995, just before its initial public offering, SunDisk changed its name to SanDisk, to avoid confusion with Sun Microsystems, a prominent computer manufacturer at the time.[4]

SanDisk co-founder Eli Harari developed the Floating Gate EEPROM which proved the practicality, reliability and endurance of semiconductor-based data storage.[5]

In 1991, SanDisk produced the first flash-based solid-state drive (SSD) in a 2.5-inch hard disk drive form factor for IBM with a 20 MB capacity priced at about $1,000.[6]

In 1992, SanDisk introduced FlashDisk, a series of memory cards made for the PCMCIA or PC card form factor, so they could be inserted into the expansion slots of many laptops and handheld PCs of the time. Unlike other similar products at the time, FlashDisks did not require a battery to store their contents. SanDisk discontinued their production in 2002, and the highest capacity model had 8 gigabytes of capacity.[4]

On May 10, 2000, the Toshiba Corporation of Japan and the SanDisk Corporation said that they would jointly form a new semiconductor company to produce advanced flash memory, primarily for digital cameras.[7]

In 2005 SanDisk entered the digital audio player market with the release of its first flash-based MP3 player, the SanDisk Sansa e100.[8] As soon as 2006, they became the second largest maker of digital audio players in the United States behind Apple.[9]

In October 2005, SanDisk acquired Matrix Semiconductor.[10] In July 2006, SanDisk acquired M-Systems.[11] In May 2011, SanDisk acquired Pliant Technology, a manufacturer of solid state drives, for $327 million.[12] In February 2012, SanDisk acquired FlashSoft.[13] In June 2012, SanDisk acquired Schooner Information Technology, developer of the flash-optimized database software SchoonerSQL and caching software Membrain.[13] In July 2013, SanDisk acquired SMART Storage Systems, a producer of SSDs for the enterprise market, for $307 million.[14] In June 2014, SanDisk acquired Fusion-io, a producer of flash memory for enterprise data centers, for $1.1 billion.[15]

In 2012, the Enough Project ranked SanDisk the third highest of 24 consumer electronics companies on "progress on conflict minerals".[16]

In 2014, SanDisk co-founder Harari won the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama for his innovations and contributions to flash memory storage.[17]

On January 8, 2015, NexGen Storage, which had been acquired by Fusion-io, was spun out as an independent company;[18] it would be acquired by Pivot3 in January 2016.[19]

In October 2015, Western Digital announced its intent to acquire SanDisk for $19 million.[20] The acquisition was completed on May 12, 2016; the valuation was lowered to $16 billion after Chinese company Unisplendour pulled out of an agreement to acquire a 15% stake in WD.[21][22]

In October 2023, Western Digital announced its intent to split into two publicly-traded companies, dealing in hard drives and flash storage respectively, with SanDisk to inherit ownership of Western Digital's flash storage products. The company began preparations for the split in October 2024, including moving all of Western Digital-branded flash storage products under SanDisk's website.[23][24] In December 2024, SanDisk unveiled a new pixel-inspired logo (replacing a design used in various forms since 1995), changing its stylization to "Sandisk".[25]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "SanDisk LLC". General Information Name Search. Delaware Division of Corporations. File No. 2162478. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  2. ^ "Market View: NAND Flash Brand Supplier Revenue Falls 6.6% in First Quarter". DRAMeXchange. February 5, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
  3. ^ Harris, Scott Duke (July 13, 2008). "Mercury News interview: SanDisk CEO helped launch digital revolution". The San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved August 6, 2008.
  4. ^ a b "25 Years of CompactFlash: A Look Back at the Pioneering Format". PCMAG.
  5. ^ "Santa Clara Valley Chapter Meeting: 'Future Directions for Semiconductor Non-Volatile Memory". Santa Clara University: IEEE Electron Devices Society. January 16, 1990.
  6. ^ "A History of Innovation". Western Digital. 1991. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  7. ^ "Toshiba and SanDisk Enter Joint Venture". The New York Times. Reuters. May 10, 2000. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  8. ^ "New SanDisk Sansa Mp3 Players". phys.org.
  9. ^ Wingfield, Nick (August 21, 2006). "SanDisk Raises Music-Player Stakes". Wall Street Journal.
  10. ^ Kawamoto, Dawn (October 21, 2005). "SanDisk to acquire Matrix Semiconductor". CNET. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  11. ^ "SanDisk To Buy msystems". The Street. July 31, 2006. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved August 21, 2006.
  12. ^ Kovar, Joseph F. (May 16, 2011). "SanDisk Plans To Buy SSD Maker Pliant Technology". CRN.com. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  13. ^ a b Kovar, Joseph F. (June 27, 2012). "SanDisk Buys Schooner, Moves Into Enterprise Software Space". CRN.com. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  14. ^ Dignan, Larry (July 2, 2013). "SanDisk acquires SMART Storage Systems for $307 million". ZDNet. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  15. ^ Hesseldahl, Arik (June 16, 2014). "SanDisk to Acquire Troubled Fusion-io for $1.2 Billion". Recode. Vox Media. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  16. ^ Lezhnev, Sasha; Hellmuth, Alex (August 2012). "Taking Conflict Out of Consumer Gadgets: Company Rankings on Conflict Minerals 2012" (PDF). Enough Project. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  17. ^ Fairsmith, Christine (October 24, 2014). "Eli Harari *73 receives honor from President Obama". School of Engineering and Applied Science. Princeton University. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  18. ^ "SanDisk Completes Spin-Out of the Company's ioControl Solutions Business". Press release. SanDisk. January 8, 2015. Archived from the original on January 17, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  19. ^ Joseph F. Kovar (January 27, 2016). "Pivot3 To Acquire NexGen Storage, Bring Storage QoS To Hyper-Converged Infrastructure". CRN. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
  20. ^ Kastrenakes, Jacob (October 21, 2015). "Western Digital is buying flash storage maker SanDisk for $19 billion". The Verge. Retrieved February 12, 2025.
  21. ^ Vincent, James (May 12, 2016). "Western Digital Officially Closes SanDisk Acquisition". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  22. ^ Mozur, Paul (September 30, 2015). "Unisplendour of China Buys 15% Stake in Western Digital". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 5, 2023. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  23. ^ Williams, Wayne (October 16, 2024). "Is this the end of WD as an SSD brand? SanDisk takes over SSD, memory cards and USB flash drives from Western Digital as company cements split". TechRadar. Retrieved February 12, 2025.
  24. ^ A, Samrhitha; Soni, Aditya (October 30, 2023). "Western Digital to split flash memory unit, refinance debt". Reuters. Retrieved February 12, 2025.
  25. ^ Shakir, Umar (December 19, 2024). "Here comes Sandisk with a rebrand". The Verge. Retrieved February 12, 2025.
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37°25′07.6″N 121°55′25.9″W / 37.418778°N 121.923861°W / 37.418778; -121.923861

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