SanDisk Acquires FlashSoft

FlashSoft’s Innovative Caching Software Products Significantly Boost Application Performance; Acquisition Expands SanDisk Enterprise Portfolio

MILPITAS, Calif.--()--SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today extended its enterprise solid state disk drive (SSD) solutions portfolio with the acquisition of FlashSoft, a provider of innovative caching software products. SanDisk intends to sell FlashSoft’s products as standalone software, as well as offer these software products in combination with SanDisk’s growing portfolio of SAS, PCIe and SATA enterprise solutions.

FlashSoft’s software is targeted for Windows, Linux and VMWare platforms, and will form the basis of a growing ecosystem of SSD-optimized software solutions from SanDisk and third party partners, enabling the configuration of complete solutions optimized for the specialized needs of enterprise and cloud customers.

Data center managers face ongoing challenges in achieving balanced application performance as the underlying system resources process data at different rates. As CPU speeds and memory bandwidth have grown rapidly, I/O bottlenecks have begun limiting application performance as data-starved CPUs must wait for overloaded I/O subsystems to deliver application data.

SSD-based caching solutions allow the most frequently accessed data to reside close to the CPU in high-performance flash memory, resulting in dramatic application performance increases. FlashSoft’s software solutions enable flash products, such as SanDisk’s Lightning® Enterprise SSDs and PCIe-based devices, to be configured as high-performance cache for their HDD storage. This allows customers to improve performance with smaller, more cost effective storage configurations and to deploy more virtual machines per server in virtualized environments. SanDisk’s strategy for serving enterprise and cloud customers includes offering optimized hardware and software solutions, as well as partnering with leading ISVs and solution providers to enable customers to mix and match devices and software to optimize for specialized application requirements.

“The acquisition of FlashSoft represents an important step in SanDisk’s strategy of delivering complete SSD and software solutions to enterprise storage customers,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO of SanDisk. “FlashSoft’s software products complement our growing family of SAS, PCIe and SATA Enterprise SSDs, and we are pleased to welcome FlashSoft to the SanDisk family.”

The FlashSoft acquisition is expected to be neutral to SanDisk’s earnings in 2012 and accretive in 2013. Additional details of the acquisition were not released.

About FlashSoft

FlashSoft Corporation provides software solutions for Flash Virtualization™ that enable customers to increase application performance and virtualization capability while reducing hardware and operational costs. Its Active Data Management technology uses sophisticated algorithms to observe IO traffic and cache hot data on server-tier SSDs.

About SanDisk

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, from research and development, product design and manufacturing to branding and distribution for OEM and retail channels. Since 1988, SanDisk’s innovations in flash memory and storage system technologies have provided customers with new and transformational digital experiences. SanDisk’s diverse product portfolio includes flash memory cards and embedded solutions used in smart phones, tablets, digital cameras, camcorders, digital media players and other consumer electronic devices, as well as USB flash drives and solid-state drives (SSD) for the computing market. SanDisk’s products are used by consumers and enterprise customers around the world.

SanDisk is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 and Fortune 500 company, with more than half its sales outside the United States. For more information, visit www.sandisk.com.

Lightning is a U.S. registered trademark of SanDisk Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademark(s) of their respective holders.

This press release may contain certain forward-looking information related to the expected benefits of the acquisition that are based on our current expectations and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause this information to be inaccurate and may significantly harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Risks that may cause this forward-looking information to be inaccurate include among others: we may not be able to effectively assimilate and integrate FlashSoft’s operations, intellectual property, personnel, technologies and products; we may experience delays in the timing and successful integration of FlashSoft and, accordingly, we may not achieve the expected benefits from the acquisition; we may not be able to cultivate and grow customer relationships required to achieve the expected benefits or revenue from the acquisition; FlashSoft’s products may not perform as expected or could fail to meet customer requirements; the enterprise SSD market may not grow as expected; FlashSoft’s key personnel may decide not to work for us for a long period after the acquisition; the integration of FlashSoft’s business, intellectual property, personnel and operations may disrupt our ongoing business, distract our management and employees, harm our reputation and increase our expenses; we may incur one-time charges, increased contingent liabilities, adverse tax consequences, depreciation or deferred compensation charges, or impairment of intangible assets or goodwill, which could harm our results of operations; 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 quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our annual report on Form 10-K. We do not intend to update the information contained in this press release.

Contacts

SanDisk Corporation
Lee Flanagin, 408-801-2463
lee.flanagin@sandisk.com

Contacts

SanDisk Corporation
Lee Flanagin, 408-801-2463
lee.flanagin@sandisk.com