Semiconductor Manufacturers. Our Primary Semiconductor Competitors
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Semiconductor Manufacturers. Our primary semiconductor competitors currently include Hynix, IM Flash Technologies LLC, or IMFT (a company formed by Micron and Intel), Micron, Samsung, and Toshiba. Flash Memory Card and USB Drive Manufacturers. Our primary card and USB drive competitors currently include, among others, A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd., or A-DATA, Buffalo, Inc., or Buffalo, Chips and More GmbH, or CnMemory, Dane-Elec Memory, or Dane-Elec, Eastman Kodak Company, or Kodak, Elecom Co., Ltd., or Elecom, FUJIFILM Corporation, or FUJI, Gemalto N.V., or Gemalto, Hagiwara Sys-Com Co., Ltd., or Hagiwara, Hama, Hynix, Imation Corporation, or Imation, and its division Memorex Products, Inc., or Memorex, I-O Data Device, Inc., or I-O Data, Kingmax Digital, Inc., or KingMax, Kingston Technology Company, Inc., or Kingston, Lexar, Micron, Netac Technology Co., Ltd., or Netac, Panasonic, PNY Technologies, Inc., or PNY, RITEK Corporation, or RITEK, Samsung, Sony, STMicroelectronics N.V., or STMicroelectronics, Toshiba, Tradebrands International, or Tradebrands, Transcend Information, Inc., or Transcend, and Verbatim Americas LLC, or Verbatim. Solid-State Drive and Hard Disk Drive Manufacturers. Our SSDs face competition from other manufacturers of SSDs, including Intel, Samsung, Toshiba, and others. Our SSDs also face competition from hard disk drives, which are offered by companies including, among others, Seagate Technology LLC, or Seagate, Samsung and Western Digital Corporation, or Western Digital. Digital Audio/Video Player Manufacturers. Our digital audio/video players face strong competition from products offered by companies, including Apple Inc., or Apple, ARCHOS Technology, or ARCHOS, Coby Electronics Corporation, or Coby, Creative Technology Ltd., or Creative, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., or Royal Philips Electronics, Microsoft Corporation, or Microsoft, Samsung and Sony. Other Technologies. Other technologies compete with our product offerings and many companies are attempting to develop memory cells that use different designs and materials in order to reduce memory costs. These potential competitive technologies include 3D, which we are also developing with Toshiba, phase-change and charge-trap flash technologies. Employees As of December 28, 2008, we had 3,565 full-time employees, including 1,341 in research and development, 500 in sales and marketing, 468 in general and administration, and 1,256 in operations. As of December 28, 2008, approximately 249 of our employees had been notified that their positions were being eliminated and they remained employed during a notice period. None of our employees are represented by a collective bargaining agreement and we have never experienced any work stoppage. We believe that our employee relations are satisfactory. Executive Officers Our executive officers, who are elected by and serve at the discretion of our board of directors, are as follows (all ages are as of February 15, 2009): Name Age Position Eli Harari ............ 63 Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mehrotra ...... 50 President and Chief Operating Officer Judy Bruner .......... 50 Executive Vice President, Administration and Chief Financial Officer Yoram Cedar ......... 56 Executive Vice President, OEM Business and Corporate Engineering Dr. Eli Harari, the founder of SanDisk, has served as Chief Executive Officer and as a director of SanDisk since June 1988. He was appointed Chairman of the Board in June 2006. Dr. Harari also served as President from June 1988 to June 2006. From 1973 to 1988, Dr. Harari held various technical and management positions with 11.